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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


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THE  DISTAFF  SERIES 

l^aued  under  the  auspices  of  the  Board  of  Women 

Malingers  of  the  State  of  New  Yoik  for 

the  Columbian  Expositiou 


THE     DISrAFF     SKl^IKS. 

16mo,  Cloth,  Ornamental,  $1  00  each. 

Woman    and  the   Higher   Education.      Edited  by 

Anna  C.  Brackett. 
Thk    Ltteratueb    of    Philanthropy.      Edited    bj- 

Frances  A.  Goodale. 
Karly  Prose   and  Vkrsb.      Edited  by  Alice   Morse 

Earle  and  Emily  Ellsworth  Ford. 
Thk  KiNnKKHARTKN.    Edited  by  Kate  Doujrlas  Wiggin, 
HorsKHOLD  Art.     Edited  by  Candace  Wheeler. 
Short  Stories.     Edited  bv  Constance  Gary  Harrison. 


PuBLisHKD    BY    HARPER    &    BROTHERS.     N.  Y. 

tW  Fur  sale  hi/  all  bonkselhrs,  or  wUl  be  «<•««,  fostage 
prepaid,  to  any  'part  of  the_  United  States,  Canada,  or 
Mexico,  on  receipt  of  the  price. 


Till-: 
K  IxN  DEUGAIM  EN 


KUITED    HY 

KATE  DOUGLAS  WIGGIN 


NKW    YOKK 

IIAKPEK  A  HKOTHKKS  PUBLISHERS 

MDCCCXCIII 


CONTENTS. 


%  Pape 

INTRODUCTION vii 

THE    RELATION   OF  THE    KINDERGARTEN  TO 

SOCIAL  REFORM 3 

By  Kate  DorcLAS  WrcGis. 

THE   CHILI)   AND  THE   RACE 30 

By  Mrs.  Mary  H.  Peabody. 

SEED,  FLOWER.  AND  FRUIT  OF  THE  KINDER- 
GARTEN  . 41 

By  Alice  Weluxgton  Rollins. 

A   PLEA  FOR  THE   PURE   KINDERGARTEN  .     .     7-1 
By  Jksny  B.  Merrill. 

THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN.     .     97 
By  Asgblixe  Bkook.*^. 

AN    EXPL.\N.\TION   OF    THE    KINDERGARTEN, 

INTENDED  FOR  MOTHERS 133 

By  Alice  A.  Cuadwick. 

THE      KINDERGARTEN      IN      THE      MOTHER'S 
WORK 1(;2 

By  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Powell  Bond. 

OUTGROWTII>J  OF  KINDERGARTEN  TRAINING  .  18u 
I'.Y  Mrs.   a.   B.   LoxriSTREET. 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  series  of  collections  of  which  this  volume 
is  a  part  is  made  up  of  representative  work  of 
the  women  of  the  State  of  New  York  in  period- 
ical literature. 

This  literature  has  been  classified  under  its 
conspicuous  divisions — Poetry,  Fiction,  History, 
Art,  Biography,  Translation,  Literary  Criticism, 
and  the  like. 

A  woman  of  eminent  success  in  each  depart- 
ment has  then  been  asked  to  make  a  collection 
of  representative  work  in  that  department,  to 
include  in  it  an  example  of  her  own  work,  and 
to  place  her  name  upon  the  volume  as  its 
Editor. 

These  selections  have  been  made,  as  far  as 
possible,  chronologically,  beginning  with  the 
earliest  work  of  tlic  century,  in  order  that 
the    volumes    may    carry    out   the    plan   of    the 


viii 


'Exhibit  of  Women's  Work  in  Literature  in 
-the  State  of  Xew  York,"  of  which  they  are 
an  original  part. 

The  aim  of  this  Exhibit  was  to  make  for  the 
Columbian  Exposition  a  record  of  literary  work, 
limited,  through  necessity,  both  by  sex  and  local- 
ity, but,  as  far  as  possible,  accurate  and  com- 
plete, and  to  preserve  this  record  in  the  State 
Library  in  the  Capitol  at  Albany. 

It  includes  twenty-five  hundred  books,  begin- 
ning with  the  works  of  Charlotte  Ramsay  Lennox, 
the  first-born  female  author  of  the  province  of 
New  York,  published  in  London  in  1752,  closing 
with  the  pages  of  a  translation  of  Herder,  still 
wet  from  the  press,  and  comprising  the  works  of 
almost  every  author  in  the  intervening  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  years. 

It  includes  also  three  hundred  papers  read  be- 
fore the  literary  clubs  of  the  State,  a  summary, 
of  the  work  of  all  writers  for  the  press,  and  the 
folios  which  preserve  the  work  of  many  able 
women  who  have  not  published  books. 

The  women  of  the  State  of  New  York  have 
had  the  honor  of  decorating  and  furnishing  the 
Library  of  the  Woman's   Building.      Believing 


the  best  equipment  of  a  library  to  be  literature, 
tliey  have  therefore  prepared  this  Exliibit,  and 
have  made  its  character  comprehensive  and  his- 
toric, in  order  that  it  may  not  be  temporary,  but 
tlmt  it  may  be  preserved  in  the  State  Library 
and  may  have  permanent  value  for  future  lovers 
and  students  of  Americana. 

In  the  preparation  of  these  volumes  Messrs. 
Harper  &  Brothers  have  arranged  that  the  com- 
position and  other  mechanical  work,  as  well  as 
the  designing  of  the  cover,  should  be  done  by 
women,  thus  giving  especial  significance  to  the 
title,  "The  Distaff  Series." 

Blanche  Wilder  Bellamy, 
Chairman  of  tlie  Committee  on  Literature 
of  the  Board  of  Women  Managers  of  the 
Stoic  of  New  York. 


THE   Ki^DERGAETEN. 


"The  ordinary  child  remeinbcrs  to  bo  good;  the  kiu- 
dergarten  child  forgets  to  be  naughty." 

—Alice  W.  Rollins. 


THE     RELATION    OF     THE     KINDER- 
GARTEN   TO    SOCIAL    REFORM. 

BY   KATE  DOUGLAS   WIGGIX. 

"  Social  reform  !''  It  is  always  rather  an 
awe-strikin«;  phrase.  It  seems  as  if  one 
ought  to  be  a  i>hih)sopher  even  to  approach 
so  august  a  subject.  The  kindergarten — a 
simple  unpretentious  j^lace,  where  a  lot  of 
tiny  children  work  and  play  together;  a 
jdace  into  which  if  the  hard-headed  man 
of  business  chanced  to  glance,  and  if  he  did 
not  stay  long  enough,  or  come  often  enough, 
would  conclude  that  the  children  were 
frittering  away  their  time,  particularly  if 
that  same  good  man  of  business  had 
weighed  and  measured  and  calculated  so 
long  that  he  had  lost  the  seeing  eye  and 
understanding  heart. 

Some  years  ago  a  San  Francisco  Icinder- 
gartner  was  threading  her  way  through  a 
dirty  alley,  making  friendly  visits  to  the 
children  of  her  Hock.     As  she  lingered  on  a 


certain  door-step,  receiviug  the  last  coufi- 
(lences  of  some  Tveary  woman's  heart,  she 
heard  a  loud  but  not  unfriendly  voice  ring- 
ing from  an  upper  window  of  a  tenement- 
house  just  round  the  corner,  "  Clear  things 
from  underfoot !"  pealed  the  voice,  in  sten- 
torian accents.  "  The  teacher  o'  the  Kicls^ 
Guards  is  comin'  down  the  street !" 

"  Eureka !"  thought  the  teacher,  with  a 
smile.  '^  There's  a  bit  of  sympathetic  trans- 
lation for  you  !  At  last  the  German  word 
has  been  put  into  the  vernacular.  The  odd 
foreign  syllables  have  been  taken  to  the 
ignorant  mother  by  the  lisping  child,  and 
the  kindergartners  have  become  the  Kids' 
Guards  !  Heaven  bless  the  rough  transla- 
tion, colloquial  as  it  is  !" 

What  has  the  kindergarten  to  do  with 
social  reform  ?  What  bearing  have  its  theory 
and  practice  upon  the  conduct  of  life  ? 

A  brass-buttoned  guardian  of  the  peace 
remarked  to  a  gentleman  on  a  street-corner, 
*'If  we  could  open  more  kindergartens,  sir, 
we  could  almost  shut  up  the  penitentiaries, 
sir!"  We  heard  the  sentiment,  applauded 
it,  and  promptly  printed  it  on  the  cover  of 
three  thousand  reports ;  but  on  calm  reflec- 
tion it  appears  like  an  exaggerated  state- 
ment.   I  am  not  sure  that  a  kindergarten  in 


every  ward  of  every  city  in  America  "would 
almost  shut  np  the  penitentiaries,  sir  !"  The 
most  determined  optimist  is  weighed  down 
by  the  feeling  that  it  will  take  more  than 
the  ardent  prosecution  Df  any  one  reform, 
however  vital,  to  produce  such  a  result.  We 
appoint  investigating  committees,  who  ask 
more  and  more  questions,  compile  more  and 
more  statistics,  and  get  more  and  more  con- 
fused every  year.  "Are  our  criminals  na- 
tive or  foreigu-boru  ?"  that  we  may  know 
whether  we  are  worse  or  better  than  other 
Itoople  ?  "  Have  they  ever  learned  a  trade  ?" 
that  wo  may  prove  what  we  already  kuow, 
that  idle  fingers  are  the  devil's  tools ;  "  Have 
they  been  educated?" — by  auy  one  of  the 
sorry  methods  that  take  shelter  under  that 
mnch-abused  word  —  that  we  may  know 
whether  ignorance  is  a  bliss  or  a  hli-sfer  ; 
''Are  they  married  or  single  ?"  that  we  may 
determine  the  intluence  of  home  ties  ;  "  Have 
t  hey  been  given  to  the  use  of  liquor  ?"  that 
we  may  heap  proof  on  proof,  mountain-high, 
against  the  monster  evil  of  intemperance ; 
"  What  has  been  their  family  history  ?" 
that  we  may  know  how  heavily  the  law  of 
heredity  has  laid  its  burdens  upon  them. 
Burning  questions  all,  if  we  could  find  out 
the  causes  of  crime. 


To  discover  the  why  and  wherefore  of 
things  is  a  hxw  of  human  thought.  The  re- 
form schools,  x)enitentiaries,  prisons,  insane 
asyhims,  hospitals,  and  poor-houses  are  all 
filled  to  overflowing  ;  and  it  is  entirely  sen- 
sible to  in(xuire  how  the  people  came  there, 
and  to  relieve,  pardon,  bless,  cure,  or  reform 
them  as  far  as  we  can.  Meanwhile,  as  we 
are  dismissing  or  blessing  or  burying  the  un- 
fortunates from  the  imposing  front  gates  of 
our  -institutions,  new  throngs  are  crowding 
in  at  the  little  back  doors.  Life  is  a  bridge, 
fnll  of  gaping  holes,  over  which  we  must 
all  travel  !  A  tliousand  evils  of  human 
misery  and  wickedness  flow  in  a  dark  cur- 
rent beneath  ;  and  the  blind,  the  weak,  the 
stupid,  and  the  reckless  are  continually  fall- 
ing through  into  the  rushing  flood.  We 
must,  it  is  true,  organize  our  life-boats.  It 
is  our  duty  to  pluck  out  the  drowning 
Avretches,  receive  their  vows  of  penitence 
and  gratitude,  and  pray  for  courage  and  res- 
ignation when  they  celebrate  their  rescue  by 
falling  in  again.  But  we  agree  nowadays 
that  we  should  do  them  much  better  service 
if  we  could  contrive  to  mend  more  of  the 
holes  in  the  bridge. 

The  kindergarten  is  trying  to  mend  one 
of  these   "holes."      It  is  a  tiny  one,  only 


large  enongli  for  a  child's  foot ;  but  that  is 
our  bit  of  tho  world's  work  —  to  keep  it 
small!  If  we  can  prevcut  the  little  people 
froui  stujubliug,  we  may  hope  that  the  grown 
folks  will  have  a  surer  foot  aud  a  steadier 
gait. 

A  wealthy  lady  anuouuced  her  intention 
of  giving  $'25,000  to  some  home  for  incu- 
rables. ''  Why,"  cried  a  bright  kindergart- 
ner,  ^^  don't  you  give  twelve  and  a  half 
tliousand  to  some  home  for  curablcs,  aud 
tlien  your  other  twelve  and  a  half  will  go  so 
much  further?" 

In  a  word,  solicitude  for  childhood  is  one 
of  the  signs  of  a  growing  civilization.  "  To 
cure,  is  the  voice  of  the  past;  to  prevent, 
the  divine  whisper  of  to-day." 

What  is  the  true  relation  of  the  kinder- 
garten to  social  reform  ?  Evidently,  it  can 
have  no  other  relation  than  that  which  grows 
out  of  its  existence  as  a  plan  of  education. 
Education,  we  have  all  glibly  agreed,  lessens 
the  prevalence  of  crime.  That  sounds  very 
well ;  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  has  our  past 
system  produced  all  the  results  in  this  direc- 
tion that  we  have  hoped  and  prayed  for? 
The  truth  is,  people  will  not  be  made  much 
better  by  education  until  the  plan  of  educat- 
inff  them  is  made  better  to  begin  with. 


Froebel's  idea — the  kindergarteu  idea  — 
of  the  child  and  its  powers,  of  humanity 
and  its  destiny,  of  the  universe,  of  the  whole 
prohlem  of  living,  is  somewhat  different 
from  that  held  by  the  vast  majority  of  par- 
ents and  teachers.  It  is  imperfectly  carried 
out,  even  in  the  kindergarten  itself,  where  a 
conscious  effort  is  made,  and  is  infrequently 
attempted  in  the  school  or  family. 

His  plan  of  education  covers  the  entire 
period  between  the  nursery  and  the  univer- 
sity, and  contains  certain  essential  features 
^vhich  bear  close  relation  to  the  gravest 
problems  of  the  day.  If  they  could  be 
made  an  integral  part  of  all  our  teaching  in 
families,  schools,  and  institutions,  the  bur- 
dens under  which  society  is  groaning  to-day 
would  fall  more  and  more  lightly  on  each 
succeeding  generation.  These  essential  feat- 
ures have  often  been  enumerated.  I  am  no 
fortunate  herald  of  new  truth.  I  may  not 
even  put  the  old  wine  iu  new  bottles ;  but 
iteration  is  next  to  inspiration,  and  I  shall 
give  you  the  result  of  eleven  years'  experi- 
ence among  the  children  and  homes  of  the 
poorer  classes.  This  experience  has  not  been 
confined  to  teaching.  One  does  not  live 
among  these  people  day  after  day,  pleading 
for  a  welcome  for  unwished-for  babies,  stand- 


iiif^  beside  tiny  <?raves,  receiving  pathetic 
contideiices  from  wretched  fathers  and  help- 
less mothers,  without  facing  every  problem 
of  this  workaday  world  ;  they  cannot  all  be 
solved,  even  by  the  wisest  of  us  ;  we  can 
only  seize  the  end  of  the  skein  nearest  to  our 
hand,  and  patiently  endeavor  to  straighten 
the  tangled  threads. 

The  kindeigarten  starts  out  plainly  with 
the  assumption  that  the  moral  aim  in  educa- 
tion is  the  absolute  one,  and  that  all  others 
are  purely  relative.  It  endeavors  to  be  a 
life-school,  where  all  the  practices  of  com- 
plete living  are  made  a  matter  of  daily 
habit.  It  asserts  boldly  that  doing  right 
would  not  be  such  an  enormously  ditlicult 
matter  if  we  practised  it  a  little  —  say  a 
tenth  as  much  as  we  practise  the  piano  — 
and  it  intends  to  give  children  })lenty  of  op- 
portunity for  practice  in  this  direction.  It 
says  insistently  and  eternally,  ^'  Do  noble 
things,  not  dream  them  all  day  long."  For 
development,  action  is  the  indispensable  req- 
uisite. To  develop  moral  feeling  and  the 
power  and  habit  of  moral  doing  we  must 
exercise  them,  excite,  encourage,  and  guide 
their  action.  To  check,  reprove,  and  punish 
wrong  feeling  and  doing,  however  necessary 
it  be  for  the  safety  and  harmony,  nay,  for 


the  very  existence  of  any  social  state,  does 
not  develop  riglit  feeling  and  good  doing. 
It  does  not  develop  anything,  for  it  stops 
action,  and  withont  action  there  is  no  de- 
velopment. At  best  it  stops  wrong  devel- 
opment, that  is  all. 

In  the  kindergarten,  the  physical,  mental, 
and  spiritual  beiug  is  consciously  addressed 
at  one  and  the  same  time.  There  is  no 
'•  piece-work  "  tolerated.  The  child  is  viewed 
in  his  threefold  relations,  as  the  child  of 
Nature,  the  child  of  Mau,  and  the  child  of 
God  ;  there  is  to  be  no  disregardiug  any  one 
of  these  divinely  appointed  relations.  It 
endeavors  with  eqnal  solicitude  to  instil 
correct  and  logical  habits  of  thought,  true 
and  generous  habits  of  feeling,  and  pure  and 
lofty  habits  of  action ;  and  it  asserts  se- 
renely that,  if  information  cannot  be  gained 
in  the  right  way,  it  would  better  not  be 
gained  at  all.  It  has  no  special  hobby,  un- 
less you  would  call  its  eternal  plea  for  the 
all-sided  development  of  the  child  a  hobby. 

Somebody  said  lately  that  the  kindergar- 
ten people  had  a  certain  stock  of  metaphysi- 
cal statements  to  be  aired  on  every  occasion, 
and  that  they  were  over -fond  of  prating 
about  the  ''being"  of  the  child.  It  would 
hardly  seem  as  if  too  much  could  be  said  in 


favor  of  the  symmetrical  growth  of  the 
(liiltl's  luitiiro.  These  are  not  mere  "silken 
jthrases;''  but,  if  any  one  dislikes  them,  let 
him  take  the  «;ood,  honest,  rin;;ing-  charge  of 
Colonel  Parker,  *'  Remember  that  the  whole 
boy  goes  to  school !" 

.  The  whole  boy  goes  to  school;  but  the 
whole  boy  is  sekloni  educated  after  he  gets 
there.  A  fraction  of  him  is  attended  to  in 
the  evening,  however,  and  a  fraction  on 
►Sunday.  He  takes  himself  in  hand  on  Sat- 
nrdays  and  in  vacation  time,  and  accom- 
l)lishcs  a  good  deal,  notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  his  sight  is  a  trifle  impaired  al- 
ready, and  his  hearing  grown  a  little  dull, 
so  tliat  Dame  Nature  works  at  a  disadvan- 
tage, and  begins,  doubtless,  to  dread  boys 
who  have  enjoyed  too  much  "schooling," 
since  it  seems  to  leave  them  in  a  state  of 
coma. 

Our  general  scheme  of  education  furthers 
mental  develoi)meut  with  considerable  suc- 
cess. The  training  of  the  liand  is  now  be- 
ing laboriously  woven  into  it ;  but,  eveu 
when  that  is  accomplished,  wo  shall  still  bo 
working  with  imperfect  aims,  for  the  stress 
laid  upon  heart-culture  is  as  yet  in  no  way 
commensurate  with  its  gravity.  We  know, 
with  that  indolent,  fruitless  half-knowledge 


12 


tliat  passes  for  kuo wing,  that  "out  of  the 
heart  are  the  issues  of  life."  We  feel,  not 
with  the  white  heat  of  absolute  conviction, 
bat  placidly  and  indiffereutlj^,  as  becomes 
the  dwellers  in  a  world  of  change,  that 
"conduct  is  three-fourths  of  life;"  but  we 
do  not  crystallize  this  belief  into  action. 
We  " dream, "not  " do "  the  " noble  things." 
The  kindergarten  does  not  fence  off  a  half- 
hour  each  day  for  moral  culture,  but  keeps 
it  in  view  every  moment  of  every  day.  Yet 
it  is  never  obtrusive ;  for  the  mental  facul- 
ties are  being  addressed  at  the  same  time, 
and  the  body  strengthened  for  its  special 
work. 

With  the  methods  generally  practised  in 
the  family  and  school,  I  fail  to  see  how  we 
can  expect  any  more  delicate  sense  of  right 
and  wrong,  any  clearer  realization  of  duty, 
any  greater  enlightenment  of  conscience,  an 3'^ 
higher  conception  of  truth,  than  we  now 
find  in  the  w^orld.  If  you  are  a  fair-minded 
man  or  woman,  and  have  had  much  experi- 
ence with  young  children,  you  will  be  com- 
pelled to  confess  that  they  generally  have  a 
tolerably  clear  sense  of  right  and  wrong, 
needing  ouly  gentle  guidance  to  choose  the 
right  when  it  is  put  before  them.  I  say 
most,  not  all,  children  ,*  for  some  are  poor. 


Muncil  lunnan  scrawls,  blotted  all  over 
Avith  the  uii.stakos  of  other  people.  And 
lu)w  do  we  treat  this  natural  sense  of  what 
is  true  and  good,  this  willingness  to  choose 
good  rather  than  evil,  if  it  is  made  even  the 
least  bit  comprehensible  and  attractive? 
In  various  ways,  all  equally  dull,  blind,  and 
vicious.  If  we  look  at  the  downright  ethi- 
cal significance  of  the  methods  of  training 
and  discipline  in  many  families  and  scliools, 
Ave  see  that  they  are  positively  degrading. 
We  appoint  more  and  more  "monitors"  in- 
stead of  training  the  "inward  monitor"  in 
each  child,  make  truth -telling  difficult  in- 
stead of  easy,  punish  trivial  and  grave  of- 
fences about  in  the  same  way,  practise  open 
bribery  by  promising  chiklren  a  few  cents  a 
day  to  behave  themselves,  and  weaken  their 
sense  of  right  by  giving  them  i)icture-cards 
for  telling  the  truth  and  credits  for  doing 
the  most  obvious  duty.  This  has  been  car- 
ried on  until  we  are  on  the  point  of  need- 
ing another  Deluge  and  a  new  start. 

Is  it  strange  that  wo  find  the  moral  sense 
blunted,  the  consoienoe  unenlightened?  The 
moral  climate  with  which  we  surround  tlio 
child  is  so  hazy  that  the  spiritual  vision 
grows  dimmer  and  dimmer,  and  small  won- 
der!     Upon    this    solid  mass  of  ignorance 


and  stupidity  it  is  difficult  to  make  any  im- 
pression; yet  I  suppose  there  is  greater  joy 
in  heaven  over  a  cordial  "thwack"  at  it 
than  over  most  blows  at  existing  evils. 

The  kindergarten  attempts  a  rational,  re- 
spectful treatment  of  children,  leading  them 
to  do  right  as  much  as  possible  for  right's 
sake,  abjuring  all  rewards  save  the  pleasure 
of  working  for  -others  and  the  delight  that 
follows  a  good  action,  and  all  punishments 
save  those  that  follow  as  natural  penalties 
of  broken  laws — the  obvious  consequences 
of  the  special  bit  of  wrong-doing,  whatever 
it  may  be.  The  child's  will  is  addressed  in 
such  a  way  as  to  draw  it  on,  if  right ;  to 
turu  it  willingly,  if  wrong.  Coercion  in  the 
sense  of  fear,  personal  magnetism,  nay,  even 
the  child's  love  for  the  teacher,  may  be  used 
in  such  a  way  as  to  weaken  his  moral  force. 
With  every  free,  conscious  choice  of  right,  a 
human  being's  moral  power  and  strength  of 
character  increase  ;  and  the  converse  of  thi.s 
is  equally  true. 

If  the  child  is  unruly  in  play,  he  leaves 
the  circle  and  sits  or  stands  by  himself,  a 
miserable,  lonely  unit,  until  he  feels  again  in 
sympathy  with  the  community.  If  he  de- 
stroys his  work,  ho  unites  the  tattered  frag- 
ments as  best  he  may,  and  takes  the  moral 


oltject  lesson  home  wiili  him.  If  ho  bas  neg- 
lected his  own  \V(»ik,  lie  is  not  given  the 
Ji)}'  of  working  for  others.  If  he  does  not 
work  in  harmony  with  his  companions,  a 
time  is  chosen  when  he  will  feci  the  sense 
of  isolation  that  comes  from  not  living  in 
nnity  with  the  prevailing  spirit  of  good-will. 
He  can  have  as  much  liberty  as  is  consis- 
tent with  the  liberty  of  other  people,  but  no 
more.  If  we  conld  infuse  the  sjjirit  of  this 
kind  of  discipline  into  family  and  school 
life,  making  it  systematic  and  continuous 
from  the  earliest  years,  there  would  be  few- 
er morally  "  slack-twisted  "  little  creatures 
growing  up  into  inetlicient,  bloodless  man- 
hood and  womanhood.  It  would  be  a  good 
deal  of  trouble  ;  but  then,  life  is  a  good  deal 
of  trouble  anyway,  if  you  come  to  that.  We 
cannot  exjiect  to  swallow  the  universe  like 
a  i>ill,  and  travel  on  through  the  world 
"  like  smiling  images  pushed  from  hehind." 
Blind  obedience  to  authority  is  not  in  it- 
self moral.  It  is  necessary  as  a  part  of  gov- 
ernment. It  is  necessary  in  order  that  we 
may  save  children  dangers  of  which  they 
know  nothing.  It  is  valuable  also  as  a 
liabil.  But  I  should  never  try  to  teach  it 
by  the  story  of  that  inspired  idiot,  the  boy 
who  "stood on  the  burning  deck,  whence  all 


16 


but  Lira  bad  fled,"  and  from  -svbeiice  be 
would  bave  fled,  if  bis  mental  endowment 
bad  been  tbat  of  ordiuary  boys.  For  obedi- 
ence must  not  be  allowed  to  destroy  com- 
mon- sense  and  tbe  feeling  of  personal  re- 
sponsibility for  one's  own  actions.  Our  task 
is  to  train  responsible,  self-directing  agents, 
not  to  make  soldiers. 

Virtue  tbrives  in  a  bracing  moral  atmos- 
j)bere,  wbere  good  actions  are  taken  ratber 
as  a  matter  of  course.  Tbe  attempt  to  in- 
stil an  idea  of  self-government  into  tbe  tiny 
slips  of  bumanity  tbat  find  tbeir  way  into 
tbe  kindergarten  is  useful,  and  infinitely  to 
be  preferred  to  tbe  most  implicit  obedience 
to  arbitrary  command.  In  tbe  one  case,  we 
may  bope  to  bave,  some  time  or  otber,  au 
enligbtened  will  and  conscience  struggling 
after  tbe  rigbt,  failing  often,  but  rising  su- 
perior to  failure,  because  of  an  ever  stronger 
joy  in  rigbt  and  sbame  for  wrong.  In  tlie 
otber,  we  bave  a  "  (jood  goose,''  wbo  does  tbe 
rigbt  for  tbe  picture-card  tbat  is  set  before 
bim  —  a  "trained  dog*'  sort  of  cbild,  wbo 
will  not  leap  tbrongb  tbe  hoop  unless  be 
sees  tbe  wbip  or  tbe  lump  of  sugar.  So 
mucb  for  tbe  training  of  tbe  sense  of  rigbt 
and  wrong.  Now  for  tbe  provision  wbicb 
tbo  kindergarten  makes  for  tbe  gro\vtb  of 


ccitaiii  practical  viilues,  much  necdcil  in 
the  world,  but  touched  upon  all  too  lightly 
in  family  and  school.  The  student  of  polit- 
ical economy  sees  clearly  enough  the  need 
of  greater  thrift  and  frugality  in  the  nation  ; 
but  where  and  when  do  we  propose  to  de- 
velop these  virtues  ?  Precious  little  time  is 
given  to  them  in  most  schools,  for  their  cnl- 
tivatiou  does  not  yet  seem  to  be  insisted 
upon  as  an  integral  part  of  tbo  scheme. 
Here  and  there  an  inspired  human  being 
seizes  on  the  thought  that  the  child  should 
really  bo  taught  how  to  live  at  some  time 
between  the  ages  of  six  and  sixteen,  or  he 
may  not  learn  so  easily  afterwards.  Ac- 
cordingly, the  pupils  nnder  the  guidance 
of  that  particular  person  catch  a  glimpso 
t»f  eternal  verities  between  the  printed 
lines  of  their  geographies  and  grammars. 
The  kindergarten  makes  the  growth  of 
every -day  virtues  so  simple,  so  gradual, 
even  so  easy,  that  you  are  almost  beguiled 
into  thinking  them  commonplace.  They 
seem  to  come  in,  just  by-the-way,  as  it  were, 
so  that  at  the  end  of  the  day  you  have  seen 
thought  and  word  and  deed  so  sweetly  min- 
gled that  you  marvel  at  the  "  universal 
<lovctailednoss  of  things,"  as  Dickens  puts 
it.     They  will  llourish  better  in  the  school, 


18 


too,  when  the  cheerful  hum  of  labor  is  heard 
tliere  for  a  little  while  each  day.  The  Idu- 
dergarten  chikl  has  "just  euough"  strips 
for  his  weaving  mat — none  to  lose,  noue  to 
destroy;  just  enough  blocks  in  each  of  his 
boxes,  and  every  one  of  them,  he  finds,  is 
required  to  build  each  simple  form.  He  cuts 
his  square  of  paper  into  a  dozen  crystal- 
shaped  bits,  and  behold  !  each  one  of  these 
tiuy  flakes  is  needed  to  make  a  symmetrical 
figure.  He  has  been  careless  iu  following 
directions,  and  his  form  of  folded  paper 
does  not  "  come  out  "  right.  It  is  not  even, 
and  it  is  not  beautiful.  The  false  step  in 
the  begiuuiug  has  perpetuated  itself  in  each 
succeeding  one,  until  at  the  end  either  par- 
tial success  or  complete  failure  meets  his 
eye.  How  easy  here  to  see  the  relation  of 
cause  to  effect !  "  Courage  !  "  says  the  kin- 
dergartner;  "better  fortune  next  time,  for 
we  will  take  greater  pains."  "  Can  you  rub 
out  the  ugly,  wrong  creases?"  "We  will 
try.  Alas,  no !  Wrong  things  are  not  so 
easily  rubbed  out,  are  they  ?"  "  Use  your 
worsted  quite  to  the  end,  dear;  it  costs 
money."  "Let  us  save  all  the  crumbs  from 
our  lunch  for  the  birds,  children  ;  do  not. 
drop  any  on  the  floor ;  it  will  only  make 
work  for  somebody  else,"     And  so   on,  to 


tlio  end  of  the  busy,  happy  day.  How  easy 
it  is  ill  the  kindergaitoii,  liow  seemingly  dif- 
licnlt  hiter  on  ! 

The  most  supeitieial  observer  values  the 
industrial  side  of  the  kindergarten,  because 
it  falls  directly  in  line  with  the  present  ef- 
fort to  make  some  manual  training  a  part  of 
school  work ;  but  twenty  or  twenty-five  years 
;ig(),  when  the  subject  was  not  so  popular, 
kindergarten  children  were  working  away  at 
their  pretty,  useful  tasks  —  tiny  missiona- 
ries helping  to  show  the  way  to  a  truth  now 
fully  recognized.  As  to  the  value  of  lead- 
ing children  to  habits  of  industry  as  early 
in  life  as  may  be,  that  they  may  see  the  dig- 
nify and  nobleness  of  labor,  and  conceive  of 
tln'ir  individual  responsibilities  in  this  world 
of  action,  that  is  too  obvious  to  dwell  upon 
at  this  time. 

To  Froebel,  life,  action,  and  knowledge 
were  the  three  notes  of  one  harinonious 
chord ;  but  he  did  not  advocate  manual 
training  merely  that  children  might  be  kept 
busy,  nor  even  that  technical  skill  might  be 
ac(|uired.  The  piece  of  finished  kinder- 
garten work  is  only  a  symbol  of  something 
more  valuable  which  the  child  has  acquired 
in  doing  it.  It  is  always  the  creative  in- 
stinct that  is  to  be  reached  and  vivified; 


20 


everytliiug  else  is  secondary.  By  repro- 
ductiou  from  memory  of  a  dictated  form, 
by  taking  from  or  adding  to  it,  by  changing 
its  centre, corners,  or  sides — by  a  dozen  ingen- 
ious preliminary  steps — the  child's  inventive 
faculty  is  developed  ;  and  he  soon  reaches  a 
point  in  drawing,  building,  modelling,  or 
what  not,  where  his  greatest  delight  is  to 
put  his  individual  ideas  into  visible  shape. 
Instead  of  twenty  hackneyed  and  slavish  cop- 
ies of  one  pattern,  we  have  twenty  free,  indi- 
vidual productions,  each  the  expression  of 
the  child's  inmost  personal  thought.  This 
invests  labor  with  a  beauty  and  power,  and 
confers  upon  it  a  dignity  to  be  gained  in  no 
other  way.  It  makes  every  task,  however 
lowly,  a  joy,  because  all  the  higher  faculties 
are  brouglit  into  action.  Much  so-called 
"  busy  work,"  wliere  pupils  of  the  ''A  class" 
are  allowed  to  stick  a  thousand  pegs  in  a 
thousand  holes  while  the  ''B  class"  is  re- 
citing aritlimetic,  is  quite  fruitless,  because 
it  has  so  little  thought  behind  it. 

Unless  we  have  a  care,  manual  training, 
when  we  have  succeeded  in  getting  it  into 
the  school,  may  become  as  mechanical  and 
unprofitable  as  much  of  our  mind  training 
has  been,  and  its  moral  value  thus  largely 
missed.     The  only  way  to  ju'eveut  it  is  to 


and  only  then,  shall  we  have  insight  with 
l)(>wer  of  action,  knowledge  with  practice, 
practice  with  the  stamp  of  individuality. 

The  kindergarten  succeeds  in  getting 
these  interesting  and  valuable  free  produc- 
tions from  children  of  four  or  five  years 
only  b}-  developing,  in  everj-  possible  way, 
the  sense  of  beauty  and  harmou}-  and  order. 
We  know  that  people  assume,  somewhat  at 
least,  the  color  of  their  surroundings  ;  and, 
if  the  sense  of  beauty  is  to  grow,  we  must 
give  it  something  to  feed  upon. 

The  kindergarten  tries  to  provide  a  room, 
more  or  less  attractive,  quantities  of  pict- 
ures and  objects  of  interest,  growing  plants 
and  vines,  vases  of  llowers,  and  plenty  of 
light,  air,  and  sunshine.  A  canary  chirps 
in  one  corner,  perhaps ;  and  very  likely 
there  will  bo  a  cat  curled  up  somewhere,  or 
a  forlorn  dog  which  has  followed  the  chil- 
dren into  this  safe  shelter.  It  is  a  i)retty, 
pleasant,  domestic  interior,  charming  and 
grateful  to  the  senses.  The  kindergartner 
loftks  as  if  she  were  glad  to  be  there,  and 
the  children  are  generally  smiling.  The 
work,  lying  cosily  about,  is  neat,  artistic, 
and  suggestive.  The  children  pass  out  of 
tlieir  seats  to  the  cheerful  sound  of  music, 


and  are  x^reseiitly  joining  in  an  ideal  sort  of 
game,  wliere,  in  place  of  the  mawkish  sen- 
timentality of  "  Sally  Walker/'  of  obnox- 
ious memory,  we  see  all  sorts  of  healthful, 
lioetic,  childlike  fancies  woven  into  song. 
Rudeness  is,  for  the  most  part,  banished. 
The  little  human  butterflies  and  bees  aud 
birds  flit  hither  and  thither  in  the  circle ; 
the  make-believe  trees  hold  up  their  branches 
and  the  flowers  their  cux)s;  aud  every- 
body seems  merry  aud  content.  As  the}' 
pass  out  the  door,  good-byes  and  bows  and 
kisses  are  wafted  backward  into  the  room ; 
for  the  manners  of  polite  society  are  ob- 
served in  everything. 

You  draw  a  deep  breath.  This  is  a  real 
kindergarten,  and  it  is  like  a  little  piece  of 
the  millennium.  "Everything  is  so  very 
pretty  and  charming,"  says  the  visitor.  Yes, 
so  it  is.  But  all  this  color,  beauty,  grace, 
symmetry,  daintiness,  delicacy,  and  refine- 
meut,  though  it  seems  to  address  and  de- 
velop the  {esthetic  side  of  the  child's  nature, 
has  in  reality  a  very  profound  ethical  signifi- 
cance. We  have  all  seen  the  preternatural 
virtue  of  the  child  who  wears  her  best  dress, 
hat,  aud  shoes  on  the  same  august  occasion. 
Children  are  tidier  and  more  careful  in  a 
dainty,  well-kei)t  room.     They  treat  pretty 


23 


materials  more  respectfull}'  than  ugly  ones. 
They  are  incliued  to  be  asbaiued,  at  least  in 
a  sliglit  degree,  of  iiucleauliuess,  vulgarity, 
aud  brutality,  when  they  see  them  iu  broad 
contrast  witli  beauty  and  harmony  and 
order.  For  the  most  part,  they  try  "  to  live 
up  to  "  the  place  iu  which  they  find  them- 
selves. There  is  some  connection  between 
manners  and  morals.  It  is  very  elusive  and 
perhaps  not  very  deep  ;  but  it  exists.  Vice 
does  not  flourish  alike  in  all  conditions  and 
localities,  by  any  means.  An  ignorant  negro 
was  overheard  praying,  "  Let  me  so  lib  dat 
when  I  die  I  may  hah  manners,  dat  I  may 
know  what  to  say  when  I  see  my  heabenly 
Lord!"  Well,  I  dare  say  Ave  shall  need 
good  manners  as  well  as  good  morals  in 
heaven  ;  and  the  constant  cultivation  of  the 
one  from  right  motives  might  give  us  an  un- 
expected impetus  towards  the  other.  If  the 
systematic  development  of  the  sense  of  beauty 
and  order  has  an  ethical  significance,  so  has 
the  happy  atmosphere  of  the  kindergarten 
an  influence  in  the  same  direction. 

I  have  known  one  or  two  ''solid  men" 
and  one  or  two  predestinate  spinsters  who 
said  that  they  didn't  believe  children  could 
accomplish  anything  in  the  kindergarten, 
because  they  had  too  good  a  time.    There  is 


24 


something  uniquely  vicious  about  people  -wLo 
care  nothing  for  children's  happiness.  That 
sense  of  the  solemnity  of  mortal  conditions 
which  has  been  indelibly  impressed  npon  us 
by  our  Puritan  ancestors  comes  soon  enough, 
Heaven  knows !  Meanwhile,  a  happy  child- 
hood is  an  unspeakably  precious  memory. 

The  social  phase  of  the  kindergarten  is 
most  interesting  to  the  student  of  social 
economics.  Co-operative  work  is  strongly 
emphasized;  and  the  child  is  inspired  both 
to  live  his  own  full  life,  and  yet  to  feel  that 
his  life  touches  other  lives  at  every  point — 
"for  we  are  members  one  of  another."  It 
is  not  the  unity  of  the  "  little  birds  "  in  the 
couplet  who  "  agree  "  in  their  "  little  nests," 
because  "  they'd  fall  out  if  they  didn't," 
but  a  realization,  in  embryo,  of  the  divine 
principle  that  no  man  liveth  to  himself. 

As  to  specifically  religious  culture,  every- 
thing fosters  the  spirit  out  of  which  true 
religion  grows. 

In  the  morning  talks,  when  the  children 
are  most  susceptible  and  ready  to  "  be 
good,"  as  they  say,  their  thoughts  ar(>  led 
to  the  beauty  of  the  world  about  them,  the 
pleasure  of  right -doing,  the  sweetness  of 
kind  thoughts  and  actions,  the  loveliness  of 
truth,    patience,   and    helpfulness,    and  the 


goodness  of  the  C'lvator  to  all  created 
tilings.  No  parent,  of  whatever  creed  or 
lack  of  creed,  whether  a  bigot  or  unbeliever, 
could  object  to  the  kind  of  reli<;ious  instruc- 
tion given  in  the  kindergarten  ;  and  yet  in 
every  possible  way  the  child-soul  and  the 
child-heart  are  directed  towards  everything 
that  is  pure  and  holy,  true  and  steadfast. 

There  is  a  vast  deal  of  practical  religion 
to  be  breathed  into  these  little  children  of 
the  street  before  the  al»stractions  of  beliefs 
can  be  comprehended.  They  cannot  live  on 
words  and  prayers  and  texts;  the  thought 
and  feeling  must  come  before  the  expres- 
sion. As  Mrs.  Whitney  says,  **  The  world 
is  determined  to  vaccinate  children  with 
icligion  fnr  fear  they  should  take  it  in  the 
natural  way." 

Some  wise  sayings  f)f  the  good  Dr.  Hol- 
latul,  in  Xichohis  Minturu,  come  to  me  as 
I  write.  Nicholas  says,  in  discussing  this 
matter  of  charities,  and  the  various  means 
of  elVectiug  a  radical  cure  of  pauperism, 
rather  than  its  continual  alleviation:  "If 
you  read  the  parable  of  the  Sower,  I  think 
thai  you  will  tind  that  soil  is  quite  as  nec- 
e.s.sary  as  seed  —  indeed,  that  the  seed  is 
thrown  away  unless  a  soil  is  ]>repnred  in  ad- 
\;iiKr.   ...   1  believe  in  religion,  bni    b«lore 


26 


I  undertake  to  plant  it,  I  would  like  some- 
thing to  plant  it  in.  The  sowers  are  too 
few,  and  the  seed  is  too  precious  to  be 
thrown  away  and  lost  among  the  thorns 
and  stones." 

Last  bnt  by  no  means  least,  the  admira- 
ble physical  culture  that  goes  on  in  the  kin- 
dergarten is  all  in  the  right  direction.  Phy- 
siologists know  as  much  about  morality  as 
ministers  of  the  gospel.  The  vices  which 
drag  men  and  women  into  crime  spring  as 
often  from  unhealthy  bodies  as  from  weak 
wills  and  callous  consciences.  Vile  fancies 
and  ^ensunl  appetites  grow  stronger  and 
more  terrible  when  a  feeble  physique  and 
low  vitality  offer  no  opposing  force.  Deadly 
vices  are  nourished  in  the  weak,  diseased 
bodies  that  are  penned,  day  after  day,  in 
filthy,  crowded  tenements  of  great  cities. 
If  we  could  withdraw  every  three-year-old 
child  from  these  physically  enfeebling  and 
morally  brutalizing  influences,  and  give 
him  three  or  four  hours  a  day  of  sunshine, 
fresh  air,  and  healthy  physical  exercise,  we 
should  be  doing  humanity  an  inestimable 
service,  even  if  we  attempted  nothing  more. 

I  have  tried,  as  briefly  as  I  might  in 
justice  to  the  subject,  to  emphasize  the  fol- 
lowing points: 


27 


I.  That  wo  must  act  up  to  our  couvic- 
tious  with  regard  to  tlie  vahie  of  preventive 
work.  If  we  are  over  obliged  to  choose,  let 
us  save  the  chiklren. 

II.  That  the  relation  of  the  kindergarten 
to  social  reform  is  simply  that,  as  a  plan  of 
education,  it  offers  us  valuable  suggestions 
in  regard  to  the  mental,  moral,  and  physical 
culture  of  children,  which,  in  view  of  certain 
crying  evils  of  the  day,  we  should  do  well  to 
follow. 

The  essential  features  of  the  kindergarten 
which  bear  a  special  relation  to  the  subject 
are  as  follows  : 

1.  The  symmetrical  development  of  the 
child's  ])Owers,  considering  him  neither  as 
all  mind,  all  soul,  nor  all  body  ;  but  as  a 
creature  capable  of  devout  feeling,  clear 
thinking,  noble  doing. 

2.  The  attempt  to  make  so-called  ''  moral 
culture"  a  little  less  immoral  ;  the  rational 
method  of  discipline,  looking  to  the  growth 
of  moral,  self-directing  power  in  the  child 
— the  only  proper  discipline  for  future  citi- 
zens of  a  free  republic. 

3.  The  development  of  certain  practical 
virtues,  the  lack  of  which  is  endangering 
the  prosperity  of  the  nation  ;  namely,  econ- 
omy, thrift,  temperance,  self-reliance,   fru- 


gality,  indiistr^^,  courtesy,  and  all  the  sober 
host  —  none  of  them  drawing-room  accom- 
plishments, and  consequently  in  small  de- 
mand. 

4.  The  emphasis  placed  upon  manual 
training,  especial!}'  in  its  development  of  the 
child's  creative  activity. 

5.  The  training  of  the  sense  of  beauty, 
harmony,  and  order;  its  ethical  as  well  as 
SBsthctical  significance. 

6.  The  insistence  upon  the  moral  etfect 
of  happiness ;  joy  the  favorable  climate  of 
childhood. 

7.  The  training  of  the  child's  social  nat- 
ure; an  attempt  to  teach  the  brotherhood 
of  man  as  well  as  the  Fatherhood  of  God. 

8.  The  realization  that  a  healthy  body 
has  almost  as  great  an  influence  on  morals 
as  a  pure  mind. 

I  do  not  say  that  the  consistent  practice 
of  these  princii^les  will  bring  the  millen- 
nium in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  but  I  do 
affirm  that  they  are  the  thought-germs  of 
that  better  education  v^iiich  shall  prepare 
humanity  for  the  new  earth  over  which  shall 
arch  the  new  heaven. 

Ruskin  says,  "Crime  can  only  be  truly 
hindered  by  letting  no  man  grow  up  a  crim- 
inal,   by  taking  away   the   will  to  commit 


29 


sill  !"  But,  you  object,  that  is  sheer  impos- 
sibility. It  (h)t's  seem  so,  I  confess,  and  y«'t, 
unless  you  are  willing  to  think  that  the 
whole  i>hin  of  an  Omnipotent  lieing  is  to  bo 
utterly  overthrown,  set  aside,  thwarted,  then 
you  must  believe  this  ideal  possible,  some- 
how, some  time. 

I  know  of  no  better  way  to  grow  to- 
wards it  than  by  living  up  to  the  kiiuh'r- 
garten  idea,  that  just  as  we  gain  iutellectual 
power  by  doing  intellectual  work,  and  the 
lincst  aesthetic  feeling  by  creating  beauty,  so 
shall  wo  win  for  ourselves  the  power  of 
feeling  nobly  and  willing  nobly  by  doing 
"uoblo  things.'^ 


THE  CHILD  AND  THE  RACE. 

BY  MRS.  MARY  H.  PEABODY. 

We  often  bear  the  expression,  "The  child 
repeats  the  history  of  the  race."  The  words 
are  used  from  the  psychological  j)oint  of 
view  rather  than  iu  the  historic  sense.  Tliey 
are  quoted  to  show  that  the  single  human 
being  goes  through  a  certain  process  of  de- 
velopment that  in  some  way  runs  x^arallel  to 
the  general  progress  of  humanity  as  it  has 
grown  from  early  ages  up  to  its  present  con- 
ditions, and  that  a  study  of  that  similarity 
in  the  courses  of  life  is  of  use  in  directing 
the  education  of  children. 

The  principle  is  of  course  applicable  ev- 
erywhere, but  iu  the  kindergarten  there  is 
an  especial  ground  for  referring  to  it,  be- 
cause iu  the  treatment  that  is  there  given 
to  the  young  mind  this  method  of  growth, 
which  is  native  to  humanity,  is  met  by  a 
more  immediate  and  complete  response  than 
is  given  by  other  systems  of  teaching.     To 


see  Avitli  what  right  wo  may  make  that 
chiiiii  we  need  to  h)ok  into  history.  The 
progress  of  the  race  has  beeu  the  progress 
and  unfohling  of  mind.  It  has  been  by  the 
growth  of  thonght  that  man  has  passed  from 
his  days  of  simplest  existence  to  these  of 
extended  power;  and  recognizing  this,  men 
have  hastened  to  establish  schools  to  teach 
yonng  minds  how  to  think.  The  alphabets 
of  mnsic,  language,  logic,  and  rhetoric  were 
once  the  chosen  way,  with  efforts  at  natural 
science,  mathematics,  and  such  curious  ideas 
of  astronomy,  physics,  and  geography  as 
masters  ventured  to  assume  were  true.  As 
time  passed  and  men  beheld  the  face  of  Nat- 
ure more  clearly,  they  found  that  all  think- 
ing on  the  part  of  humanity  had  to  try  it- 
self in  her  domain,  and  that  only  what  could 
hold  true  under  her  sky,  wherever  tried,  was 
of  any  real  value.  Nature  has  been  the 
great  teacher  of  the  world,  and  the  question 
has  been  and  still  is  how  to  bring  her  into 
the  schools  of  men. 

In  the  light  of  history  action  is  the  result  / 
of  thought.     It  is  carrying  out  on  the  plane  ' 
of  Nature,  by  means  of  her  materials  and 
her  forces,  the  ideas  which  have  germinated 
in  the  mind  of  man.     Thus  the  great  task 
of  mankind   has   beeu   to   make    his   own 


32 


thought  clear  as  to  the  possibilities  of  Nat- 
ure; to  compreheud  in  his  own  mind  her 
laws  of  action,  the  relationship  and  meth- 
ods of  her  forces,  the  agreement  and  disa- 
greement of  her  materials,  and  to  know  by 
means  of  Nature's  refusals  and  compliances 
in  what  way,  working  with  her,  he  might 
carry  out  his  own  conceptions.  The  diffi- 
culty has  never  been  that  nature  is  one 
thing  and  man  another,  but  that  man  has 
neither  known  himself,  his  own  powers  and 
the  laws  that  control  them,  nor  the  similar 
action  of  things  outside  of  himself  in  nature ; 
and  truly  the  sum  of  his  history  has  been  the 
establishing  of  one  point  after  another  in 
this  great  connection  of  the  world  within 
an4  the  world  without,  and  so  offering  to 
humanity  at  large  one  step  after  another  by 
which  to  ascend  towards  its  height  of  mor- 
tal power. 

The  spirit  of  man,  being  immortal  and  be- 
longing to  the  Infinite,  flies  through  space 
to  limitless  regions  beyond.  For  discipline, 
for  knowledge  of  itself,  for  the  training  that 
is  essential  to  its  healthy  growth  in  this  be- 
ginning of  its  career,  it  is  cast  in  earthly 
form  and  set  face  to  face  with  nature  that 
it  may  develop  thought — the  clear,  strong, 
thinking,  reasoning  mind.     This  is  the  phi- 


losopliy  of  Fnx'iK'l.  lie  scm^s  (lio  now-lKtni 
human  spirit  as  the  first  (legreo  of  life.  Ho 
sees  the  physical  nature  as  its  "  outermost" 
— the  decree  outside  and  opposite,  and  Ijo 
sees  tlie  man  himself  risinj::  hetween  the  two 
upon  the  plane  of  tliat  thiid  condition  or  de- 
<xree  of  life,  the  thon<j;litfnl,  rational  mind. 
This  mind  of  man  is  created  and  grows  by 
the  union  of  the  vohatile  interior  spirit  ^Yith 
the  limited  forms  and  forces  of  nature  with- 
out ;  and  Froebel  shows  that  since  the  his- 
tory of  the  race  reveals  all  this,  we  can  take 
advantage  of  its  teachings,  and  in  educating 
the  child  give  him  from  the  beginning  a 
certain  ac(iuaintanco  w  ith  nature  that  shall 
l)e  a  true  foundation  for  his  growth  of  mind 
an<l  ot^'er  the  greatest  service  for  his  rapi<l 
advancement.  In  the  teaching  of  Froebel 
we  find  no  point  in  life  unrecognized.  His 
vision  was  keen  iu  all  directions,  and  as  if 
standing  himself  at  the  centre,  he  looks 
through  the  entire  circumference  of  life, 
considering  the  past,  the  present,  and  the 
future,  relating  the  child  to  his  fellows  as  a 
man,  and  taking  into  his  plan  for  education 
all  that  man  has  done  in  his  range  of  lal)or 
from  lowest  forms  of  in«lustiy  to  highest 
forms  of  art.  The  kimlergarten  is  not,  how- 
ever, a  museum.     It  does  not  bring  into  its 


borders  materials  for  illustration  of  tbe  di- 
versity of  tbe  world,  either  as  shown  in  nat- 
ure or  in  the  works  of  man.  On  the  contra- 
ry, Froebel  teaches  explicitly  that  the  visible 
world  of  form  and  movement — its  rolling 
spheres,  its  rocks  and  earth,  its  forms  of 
life,  plant,  animal,  and  human,  and  amid 
all  this  the  manifold  labors  and  construc- 
tions of  men — that  this  great  outside  world 
is  not  to  be  brought  to  the  child.  He  sees 
these  things  everywhere  about  him.  They 
are  in  themselves  variety,  their  name  is  dis- 
traction, and  among  them  all  the  child,  in- 
quisitive and  eager,  stands  Avhere,  seeing 
much,  he  can  comprehend  almost  nothing, 
and  therefore  is  not  in  the  way  of  gaining 
for  himself  the  habit  of  clear,  strong  thought. 
Such  habit  in  the  child  or  in  the  man  is 
gained  only  by  knowing  the  principles  of 
things;  so  Froebel  says  we  are  to  turn  from 
this  outside  variety  and  give  the  child  the 
inside  unity  from  which  they  spring.  The 
Xdano  of  outer  life  is  the  piano  of  result.  It 
shows  the  conclusions  of  long  continued  ef- 
fort both  in  nature  and  in  the  work  of  man; 
and  since  all  growth  is  expansion  of  life 
from  some  small  seed  or  germ  of  interior 
vitality,  it  is  in  the  order  of  true  education 
that  the  child  should  be  drawn  at  once  from 


tlic  distraction  of  tlio  outer  to  the  unity  of 
,  the  beginnings  of  things,  from  the  phiue  of 
J  results  to  the  phine  of  origins.  We  are  to 
give  the  opposite  of  what  the  cliihl  sees,  the 
lieart  of  things,  the  cause  for  the  existenco 
and  character  of -what  lies  Avithont.  So  that 
tiie  child  can  be  led  from  within  outward 
along  tlie  lines  of  law.  This  explains  why 
we  llnd,  as  the  outfit  of  the  kindergarten, 
only  three  simple  bare  forms — the  ball,  tho 
cube,  and  the  cylinder,  and  tho  limited  set 
of  forms,  faces,  lines,  and  points  that  arc  de- 
rived from  these  three  originals.  Froebcl 
went  to  the  three  forms  which,  in  their  pre- 
cision, stand  as  the  basis  of  creation,  tho 
starting-points  of  all  construction  and 
growth  in  nature,  and  of  all  construction 
and  developnunt  of  thought  in  man.  These 
elementary  forms  of  nature  and  life  show 
to  the  child  what  he  cannot  sec  for  himsolf. 
They  give  the  laws  of  things.  All  things  that 
exist  are  form  without  and  force  within — that 
is,  as  the  forces  of  life  and  nature  act  in  con- 
nection with  one  another  they  take  visible 
form,  and  all  forms  that  are  thus  produced 
grow  out  of  and  are  related  to  these  three, 
which  are  represented  in  the  Second  Gift  of 
the  kindergarten.  Froebel  sees  the  child  in 
ignorance    of  all  things,  knowing  nothing 


of  methods,  movements,  and  measurements, 
either  of  the  heavens  ahove  or  the  earth  he- 
iieath ;  the  flying  of  trains,  the  flash  of  a 
telegraphic  message,  or  the  hnikling  of  an 
Eiftel  tower.  He  is  in  a  world  of  wonders, 
all  equally  unreadable.  Froebel  saw,  with 
insight  beyond  that  of  any  other  teacher, 
that  the  child  should  be  led,  not  from  thing 
to  thing  in  the  completeness  of  its  finished 
detail,  but  directly  inward  to  the  starting- 
points  of  each,  to  the  principles  upon  which 
each  rests.  And  in  doing  this  he  compre- 
hended that  the  child  in  his  ignorance  re- 
jieated  the  history  of  his  race.  There  was  a 
time  when  the  earth  was  not  compassed  with 
a  belt  of  human  construction,  when  oceans 
separated  the  lands  which  they  now  con- 
nect, when  the  railway  and  the  steamship 
did  not  reach  from  China  round  again. 
Whatever  were  the  beginnings  of  history, 
and  these  we  do  not  know,  the  general  rec- 
ord of  man  goes  to  show  that  he  has  been 
slow  to  comprehend  the  world  of  nature, 
slow  to  learn  the  laws  by  exercise  of  which 
he  could  be  master  upon  the  earth. 

From  the  East  the  progress  of  the  race 
has  been  westward.  We  hoar  the  echo  of 
the  songs  of  India,  and  leave  untouched  the 
veil  of  Isis  ;  but  while  acknowledging  mys- 


teries  that  are  not  revealed,  we  can  niovo 
from  Asia  into  Europe  and  across  to  Anier- 
ic.i,  following  tokens  of  a  life  that  began  in 
iiidest,  most  primitive  forms.  Reading  l>y 
tlie  fragments  left  lying  in  the  drifted  soil 
^ve  learn  that  men  were  once  ignorant  of 
Nature.  They  ranged  about  as  fishers  mere- 
ly, haunting  the  river  valleys,  and  leaving  be- 
hind their  piles  of  bones — the  kitchen-mid- 
dens—that  tell  their  simple  story.  Gradually 
this  roughest  life  gave  place  to  something 
better — to  staying  in  a  place  to  plant  and 
reap  a  harvest,  to  moving  out  of  caves  and 
building  huts  and  houses.  Then  came  the 
use  of  metals,  superior  to  the  stones  and 
bones  that  had  before  served  all  purposes; 
and  after  that,  as  one  group  learned  from 
another,  this  lirst  grasp  upon  Nature's  laws 
and  materials  having  been  made,  men  went 
forward  in  paths  of  industry,  organizing  and 
expanding  their  lives  at  every  step. 

As  wo  look  back  at  history,  however,  we 
see  how  slow  has  been  the  progress  of  the 
race,  and  what  a  mighty  etfort  has  been 
made  by  the  great  men  who  have  opened 
the  way  through  learning  some  new  princi- 
ple of  natural  science.  Their  ([uestions  were 
all  of  i>riuciple  and  plan,  of  origin  and  end; 
and  for  centuries  the  calm  face  of  Nature 


vouclisafecl  no  reply.  Pythagoras,  Plato, 
Aristotle,  with  what  earnestness  they  strove 
to  look  through  creation  to  catch  the  secret 
of  movement,  the  direction  and  the  method  of 
its  forces  ;  and  what  curions  prejndice  ruled 
the  mind  of  the  race  in  those  darker  days. 
Copernicus  might  labor,  and  Galileo  might 
die;  men  would  not  yield  their  opinions  and 
be  set  in  the  way  of  truth.  And  after  these, 
how  like  a  child  creeping  upon  its  knees  be- 
fore it  finds  the  law  of  its  erect,  vertical 
bearing,  did  Kepler  toil  through  years  of 
baffled  inquiry  before  he  won  the  true  sight 
by  which  ho  could  explain  and  reveal  the 
heavens  and  the  earth,  and  open  the  way 
for  Newton  and  the  heroes  of  science  who 
have  taught  us  the  construction  of  the  earth, 
the  development  of  plants,  the  progress  and 
relationship  of  animal  life,  the  anthropology 
and  ethnology  of  man,  and  his  religious, 
political,  and  social  history. 

In  all  this  striving,  success  has  been  de- 
clared by  the  advance  of  man  upon  new 
territory,  by  his  crossing  the  seas,  by  his 
erection  of  buildings,  and  his  annihilation 
of  space  and  time.  And  if  we  look  past  the 
outermost  aspect  of  this  occupation  of  the 
earth,  we  come  to  one  great  principle  that 
underlies  the  whole,  and  here  we  find  Froe- 


bel  looking  from  nature  and  the  work  of 
man  to  the  cliikl.  In  all  that  has  been  clone, 
men  have  been  seeking  for  the  relationship 
of  one  thing  to  another.  This,  and  this  only, 
gives  tlie  key  to  power — to  know  how  things 
are  related,  how  they  act  one  upon  another, 
how  the^^  repel  and  attract,  how  they  bind 
into  one,  and  how  they  disperse  and  scatter 
thevitalforces  of  nature.  Nature,  as  a  whole, 
is  the  manifestation  of  energy ;  her  sepa- 
rate parts,  visible  and  invisible,  are  only  so 
many  expressions  of  the  one  great  life  that 
flows  through  suns,  moons,  stars,  and  earths. 
This  force  is  separated;  set  in  many  forms. 
Some  of  them  will  work  together,  and  some 
of  them  will  not.  Each  great  invention  has 
been  completed  by  the  discovery  of  this  law 
of  relationship  of  parts,  by  learning  how  to 
adjust  and  relate  in  a  working  order  cer- 
tain forms  and  forces.  Whenever  a  point  is 
gained  man  has  an  extension  of  power,  and 
the  world  profits  thereby.  And  here  lies  the 
reason  for  keeping  in  mind  the  analogy  be- 
tween the  single  life  and  that  of  the  world. 
What  the  w^orld  has  sought  for  the  child 
meets.  The  world  has  sought  for  the  prin- 
ciples of  things,  for  the  methods  of  power 
in  its  first  movements  outward  from  the  cen- 
tre.    Amid  the  diversity  of  nature  this  sim- 


40 


plicity  has  been  bard  to  fiud,  and  in  the 
desire  to  belp  the  cbild,  so  tbat  be  in  bis 
turn  may  belp  tbe  world,  Froebel  gives  biui 
tbe  three  forms  tbat  lie  at  the  heart  of  all 
coustructioii  and  all  growth,  and  begins  to 
teach  him  how  to  think,  bow  to  come  uj)  on 
to  the  plane  of  the  rational  mind,  by  show- 
ing him  tbe  relation  of  one  thing  to  another  ; 
showing  him  bow  to  constrnct,  bow  to  sepa- 
rate, and  how  to  ally  with  mathematical 
precision  the  forms,  faces,  angles,  lines,  and 
points  that  men  have  been  dealing  with 
since  the  world  began.  Tbns,  before  tbe 
child  reads,  and  begins  to  range  abroad  at 
bis  own  will,  be  is  set  face  to  face  with  Nat- 
ure, and  is  shown  some  of  tbe  secrets  of 
relationship  by  means  of  which  the  world 
has  moved  and  the  race  has  grown  from 
childhood  to  maturity. 


SEED,  FLOWER,  AND  FRUIT  OF  THE 
KINDERGARTEN. 

BY  ALICE   WELLINGTON   RQLLINS. 

There  was  ouce  a  cliilcl,  and  because  Le 
was  born  less  fortunate  tbau  others,  be  was 
less  good.  And  those  people  who  were  bet- 
ter, because  more  fortunate,  said  among 
tbemselves :  "  It  is  very  sad  that  he  should 
not  be  good.  Let  us  be  kind  to  him.  What 
shall  we  do?"  And  they  said,  ''Educate 
him."  But  what  is  education?  "It  is 
teaching  him  facts.  We  will  teach  him  that 
two  and  two  make  four.  Then  he  will  be  in- 
telligent, and  when  he  is  intelligent  he  will 
be  good."  So  they  taught  bim  that  two  and 
two  make  four,  but  he  did  not  become  any 
better,  nor  did  he  seem  much  more  intelli- 
gent. Then  they  said,  "  Perhaps  it  is  the 
bad  air."  For  they  were  teaching  him  in 
the  same  old  haunts  where  he  had  lived, 
where  tbe  rooms  were  small  and  stifling,  so 
that  his  muscles  were  cramped  and  there 


was  scarcely  any  air  to  breathe,  aud  what 
lie  did  breathe  was  almost  poisonous.  Aud 
they  said:  ''We  will  be  kinder  still.  We 
will  build  hiui  a  separate  school-house,  in  a 
j^ood  locality,  with  large  rooms  aud  plenty 
of  windows,  aud  good  air  outside  of  the 
windows." 

This  they  did,  aud  taught  him  again  that 
two  and  two  make  four.  This  time  he 
learned  it  more  quickly,  because  the  air  was 
better ;  but  he  did  not  become  a  good  boy, 
and,  although  he  had  a  little  more  iutelli- 
gence,  it  seemed  almost  as  though  he  used 
his  intelligence  to  increase  his  ingenuity  in 
evil  resources.  Then  they  said,  "  We  will 
build  other  schools — -moral  schools,  Sunday- 
schools — aud  tell  him  how  beautiful  it  is  to 
do  right,  aud  how  terrible  to  do  wrong." 
But  this  did  not  have  any  perceptible  effect 
upon  him.  Then  they  said,  "  We  will 
frighten  him  ;  we  will  tell  him  that  God 
will  punish  him  if  he  does  wrong."  But  he 
wasn't  frightened.  And  then  they  said, ''  We 
will  punish  him  ourselves;  we  will  build  a 
jail,  with  bolts  aud  bars,  and  shut  him  up  if 
he  does  wroug." 

But  still  he  did  wrong,  and  was  shut  uj) ; 
and  wheu  he  came  out  he  only  did  more 


43 


jail  he  had  been  angry  at  having  been  shut 
np,  and  had  been  thinking  what  he  conld 
do  when  he  shonld  get  ont  to  show  that  he 
was  angry.  And  then  came  some  one  who 
said,  ''Let  me  take  him  ;"  and  she  took  him 
into  a  room  where  there  was  a  piano  and  an 
American  flag  and  a  big  hea})  of  damp  clay, 
and  she  said  to  him,  "  Would  yon  like  to 
make  a  rabbit?"  And  his  eyes  sparkled, 
and  he  said  he  sliould.  Then  she  took  some 
of  the  damp  clay,  and  began  moulding  it  in 
her  fingers,  and  she  let  him  take  some,  and 
watch  how  she  worked  5  and  so  they  worked 
together,  and  by-and-by  his  rabbit  was  al- 
most as  good  as  hers.  Then  each  of  them 
made  another  rabbit,  and  she  asked,  "  How 
many  rabbits  are  there  now  ?"  And  he  said, 
instantly,  "  Four  rabbits." 

This  time  he  had  learned  his  lesson  very 
quickly,  and  his  eyes  sparkled  as  he  gave 
the  right  answer.  Then  she  told  him  ho 
could  not  make  any  more  rabbits  that  day, 
but  he  might  come  again  the  next  day  at  the 
same  hour,  and  they  would  make  some  more 
rabbits,  and  perhaps  a  bird.  So  he  went 
away ;  but  he  was  so  interested  in  the  rabbit- 
making  that  all  the  rest  of  the  day  he  was 
thinking  about  it,  and  picking  up  a  little 
mud  in  the  street,  not  to  throw  at  a  police- 


man,  as  he  used  to  do,  but  to  try  making  a 
rabbit  of  it ;  and  as  it  was  not  very  easy,  ho 
tried  it  again  witli  a  bit  of  dough  from  the 
bread  his  motlier  was  making.  Ajid  he  was 
so  busy  over  this,  and  so  happy,  that  he  for- 
got all  about  a  lie  he  had  meant  to  tell  and 
a  gingerbread  cake  he  had  meant  to  steal. 
This  was  what  had  happened  to  him  :  he  had 
learned  even  more  easily  than  before  that 
two  and  two  make  four,  but  something  else 
had  happened  to  him — he  had  forgotten  to 
be  bad.  He  had  not  been  given  any  higher 
aspirations,  any  wider  knowledge  of  good 
and  evil,  or  the  results  of  good  and  evilj  he 
had  simply  forgotten  about  evil,  because  he 
had  been  interested  in  something  else.  In- 
terested— that  is  the  magic  word.  The  prob- 
lem of  the  age  is  to  make  virtue,  knowledge, 
philanthropy,  interesting.  We  all  know 
the  witty  advice,  '^  If  you  would  be  wise  and 
good  and  happy,  educate  your  grandmother." 
And  in  this  recognition  of  the  immense  power 
of  heredity,  we  are  apt  to  acknowledge  the 
discouraging  factor  of  the  impossibility  We 
cannot  educate  our  grandmother,  we  sayj 
but  there  are  grandmothers  whom  we  can 
educate.  The  children  of  to-day  are  the 
grandmothers  of  the  future  ;  we  can  educate 
them.     Let  who  will  make  the  laws  of  the 


45 


nation,  so  ouly  we  cau  educate  the  cliiklreu. 
Aud  wbat  is  education  ?  It  is  teacbiug  peo- 
ple to  know  things,  you  will  say.  So  it  is, 
to  some  extent ;  but  to  a  far  greater  extent 
it  is  teaching  them  to  feel  things — as  the  lit- 
tle boy  ill  the  kindergarten  feels  far  more  pa- 
triotic waving  a  little  American  flag  as  lie 
marches  round  the  room  to  a  stirring  strain 
from  the  piano  than  he  feels  after  he  has  sim- 
ply learned  the  fact  from  a  teacher  or  book 
that  he  has  a  country  and  ought  to  love  it. 
This,  then,  is  the  triple  advantage  of  the 
system  of  education  which  begins  with  the 
kindergarten  5  it  teaches  facts,  it  develops 
the  faculty  of  being  amused,  it  encourages 
the  power  to  create.  The  ordinary  primary- 
school  teaches  facts ;  but  the  kindergarten 
teaches  them  earlier,  more  thoroughly,  and 
more  easily,  while  in  addition  it  develops 
character,  rouses  feeling  as  well  as  knowl- 
edge ;  teaches  children  to  work,  and,  what  is 
more  important,  teaches  them  to  like  work. 
It  is  foolish  literary  pathos  to  excite  sympa- 
thy for  the  degradation  of  tlie  poor  by  writ- 
ing, as  Mrs.  Browning  does,  of  the  children  of 
tbe  slums": 
"But  the  young,  young  children,  Oh,  my  brothers, 

They  are  weeping  bitterly ; 
They  are  weeping  in  the  play-time  of  the  others, 

In  the  country  of  the  free." 


No ;  they  are  not  weeping ;  let  us  not  pre- 
tend for  a  moment  tLat  they  are.  They  are 
perfectly  happy,  but  they  are  happy  in  mis- 
erable ways.  Thej^  are  shouting,  hiughing, 
leaping,  grimly  rollicking  in  what  they  know 
as  *-fun,"  proud  of  their  ingenuity  in  lying, 
blissful  in  their  ability  to  fasten  fire-crackers 
to  dogs'  tails  and  tin  pans  to  cats',  swearing 
with  delight,  boasting  in  riotous  glee  of 
their  stolen  gingerbread.  This  is  the  most 
tragic  thing  in  their  fate ;  they  are  not  un- 
happy in  their  degradation.  We  are  to 
teach  them  not  to  be  happy,  but  to  be  happy 
in  wise,  sweet  ways,  and  that  is  what  the 
kindergarten  begins.  Children  are  not  happy 
in  merely  learning  that  two  and  two  make 
four  ;  but  they  are  happy  in  learning  how 
to  make  four  rabbits  out  of  two  and  two  bits 
of  damp  clay.  Which  brings  us  to  the  third 
advantage  of  the  kindergarten  and  its  es- 
pecial adaptation  to  the  poorer  classes — its 
power  in  developing  the  faculty  to  create. 
'*  Of  what  use  to  the  poor  boy,"  it  may  be 
asked,  "  can  it  possibly  be  to  learn  to  make 
rabbits  out  of  clay  ?"  It  is  of  no  special 
moment  that  he  should  learn  to  do  so,  but  it 
is  of  great  imx)ortance  that  he  should  learn 
to  make  something. 

"  Could  you  make  as  good  a  pair  of  shoes 


as  that  when  you  came  here  ?"  asked  a  visitor 
of  a  convict  in  prison. 

^'No,  sir,"  was  the  reply.  ''If  I  couhl 
have,  I'd  never  have  been  here." 

It  will  he  objected  that  perhaps  a  practical 
vent  is  good  for  restless  thought  and  hand, 
but  that  it  is  unwise  to  foster  in  the  poor  an 
artistic  taste  which  may  merely  make  them 
long  restlessly  for  advantages  and  things 
they  are  never  to  have.  Those  who  make 
this  plea  forget  that  the  kindergarten  tends 
to  develop  not  art  merely,  but  artists;  not 
taste  merely,  but  power;  not  enjoyment 
merely,  but  ability ;  not  things  alone,  but 
thinkers.  It  does  not  teach  children  to 
crave  what  they  cannot  get,  but  to  create 
)vhat  otherwise  they  could  not  get.  It  is 
opening  a  vent  for  ambition  instead  of 
stifling  it. 

"  What  did  you  think  of  the  new  little 
gii'l,  Charlie  ?"  asked  Charlie's  mother,  when 
he  came  home  from  the  kindergarten. 

"  I  don't  think  much  of  her,"  was  the 
lordly  reply ;  "  she  doesn't  even  know  what 
a  cube  is." 

This  is  a  typical  effect  of  the  system ;  it 
does  not  so  much  teach  cliildren  to  know 
things  as  create  in  them  an  ambition  to 
kuow  things.     Whatever  we  may  think  of 


it  for  the  rich,  it  wouhl  seoin  solf-ovident 
that  it  is  what  is  needed  for  the  chihlreu  of 
the  poor. 

The  proposition  to  introduce  kindergarten 
into  the  public  schools  has  been  opposed  by 
one  of  the  Board  of  Education  on  the  ground 
that  it  would  be  an  "outrage"  to  put  upon 
the  city  the  burden  of  an  expense  of  |3,000,- 
000,  merely  that  the  children  of  the  city  may 
begin  the  study  of  grammar  a  little  earlier. 
The  advocates  of  the  measure  acknowledge 
frankly  that  to  tliem  an  expense  of  $3,000,000 
to  a  city  which  numbers  nearly  2,000,000  in- 
habitants, and  whose  real  estate  and  ix^rsonal 
property  are  assessed  at  nearly  two  thou- 
sand millions  of  dollars,  would  not  seem  too 
great,  even  if ''merely"  there  would  thereby 
be  secured  to  the  next  generation  a  little 
more,  a  little  easier,  or  a  little  better  educa- 
tion. To  which  may  be  added  a  gentle  re- 
minder as  to  the  art  of  putting  things:  a  tax 
of  $3,000,000  for  a  city  sounds  large  ;  but  the 
sum  decreases  in  effect  if  you  put  it  in  a  way 
equally  true,  that  the  average  individual 
tax  would  be  but  a  dollar  and  a  half  per- 
haps; while  if  the  city  would  grant  even 
the  $26,000  which  has  been  asked  in  humbler 
hours  for  making  the  experiment,  the  in- 
dividual tax  would  hardly  be  twenty-five 


49 


cents  a  year,  no  more  than  many  a  nmu 
tosses  to  a  beggar  on  the  street  many  days 
on  his  way  up-towu.  But  to  those  who 
think  other  and  stronger  argnments  neces- 
sary, we  would  respectfully  present  the  ap- 
peal as  one  for  self-preservation  and  the  city 
interests.  It  is  an  appeal  that  the  children 
of  the  city — and  we  trust  the  pathos  of  the 
name  will  touch  the  imagination — may  look 
to  their  parents  for  the  same  training  of  the 
soul  as  well  as  the  mind  that  the  individual 
child  has  a  right  to  demand  from  the  indi- 
vidual parent;  and  this,  not  "merely"  for 
the  individual  good  of  the  child,  but  for 
the  eventual  benefit  to  the  parent.  We  ap- 
peal for  kindergarten  in  the  puhUc  sclwols  on 
the  ground  that  it  will  tend,  far  more  than 
any  other  influence  possible  for  the  city  to 
exert  en  masse,  to  the  training  of  good  citi- 
zens. We  appeal  for  an  expense  of  $3,000,000 
not  "  merely  "  becanse  the  children  of  the 
city  will  be  made  happier  and  more  intelli- 
gent in  schools  of  which  the  pre-eminent  ad- 
vantage is  less  that  they  begin  education 
early  than  that  they  begin  it  rightly,  but 
also  to  save  the  city  an  eventual  expense  of 
$10,000,000  or  more  for  '<  homes"  and  jails 
and  pauper  institutioiis  and  reformatories, 
when  later  iu  life  its  neglected  childreu 
4 


drift  iuevitably  to  the  squalor,  the  want,  the 
shiftlessuess,  the  wrong,  that  spring  less 
from  temperament  than  from  ner/lected  tem- 
perament. The  iiiclividual  parent  feels  the 
responsibilitj"  of  heredity,  dreads  to  discover 
in  the  child  seeds  of  evil  sown  by  himself. 
Not  less  should  a  great  city  realize  its  i^ower 
to  determine  the  heredity,  not  of  its  own  im- 
mediate generation  of  children,  but  that  of 
their  children,  exactly  so  far  as  it  consents 
to  endow  its  own  children  with  advantages 
perfectly  in  its  power  to  bestow,  and  certain 
to  react  in  the  years  to  come  with  a  force 
that  grows  with  geometric  progression  ;  a 
force  which,  leaving  out  of  consideration 
the  interests  of  the  children  themselves, 
will  be  of  incalculable  power  to  the  city  it- 
self. Divert  the  minds  of  the  young,  and 
you  will  not  need  to  reform  the  old.  Neglect 
the  mind  of  the  young,  and  yon  will  not  be 
able  to  protect  yourself  from  them  when 
you  are  old. 

It  will  at  once  be  asked:  "Granting 
the  value  of  the  results  claimed,  by  what 
methods  are  they  secured  by  the  kinder- 
garten system  ?  How  is  it  possible  for  citi- 
zens of  so  much  finer  calibre  to  develop  mere- 
ly from  beginning  school  a  little  earlier." 
To  which  we  must  repeat  that  it  is  not  in 


the  beginning  earlier,  but  in  the  hecjinning 
better,  that  the  miracle  lies.  The  ordinary 
primary-school  teaches  truths  as  facts;  the 
kindergarten  teaches  the  same,  and  more 
truths,  as  impressions.  A  boy  may  forget  or 
disdain  a  fact ;  but  he  never  recovers  from 
an  impression.  It  is  atmosphere,  not  dogma, 
that  educates ;  the  kindergarten  surrounds 
the  child  with  an  atmosphere  of  culture  and 
intelligence  and  good-will  to  men.  Said  the 
boy  Heine,  of  the  old  French  drummer  in  his 
father's  household  :  ^'  When  he  talked  about 
liberty,  I  did  not  understand;  but  when  he 
played  the  Marseillaise  on  his  drum,  then  I 
understood."  The  kindergarten  plays  the 
Marseillaise  ou  the  finely  responsive  chords 
of  the  youug  soul,  which  will  never  vibrate  to 
any  other  influence  so  effectively.  Tlie  ordi- 
nary school  tells  the  child  he  ought  to  love 
his  country  ;  the  kindergarten  males  him 
love  it.  The  one  tells  him  facts  about  Wash- 
ington and  Jefferson  and  patriotic  lives  ;  the 
other  gives  him  a  little  American  flag  to 
wave  as  he  marches  round  the  room  to  a 
stirring  national  air,  and  behold  I  he  himself 
has  become  patriotic!  And  as  he  is  made 
indelibly  patriotic  by  a  mere  impression,  so 
he  is  taught  indelibly  in  other  ways,  by 
other   impressions,  to  be  courteous,  to  be 


62 


honest,  to  be  nnselfisb,  to  be  thongbtful,  to 
regard  the  rights  of  others,  to  feel  the  im- 
pulses of  love  and  tenderness  and  sympathy, 
and  of  self-respect,  and  to  be  sensitive  to 
beauty.  No  one  denies  the  importance  of 
these  factors  of  education  ;  but  it  is  general- 
ly supposed  that  everything  except  intel- 
lectual facts  Avill  be  taught  the  child  at 
home  and  in  society ;  and  it  is  too  often  for- 
gotten that  too  many  of  the  children  of  the 
city  find  tbe  worst  of  influences  in  their 
homes  and  the  society  that  surrounds  tliem. 
There  is  not  a  game,  not  a  talk,  not  a  pict- 
ure, not  a  song,  in  the  kindergarten  metbod 
Avhich  lightens  learning  by  games  and  talks 
and  pictures  and  songs,  but  has  an  ulterior 
motive  of  teaching  a  fact,  or  imparting  a 
feeling,  by  making  an  impression. 

Tliis,  then,  is  the  chief  value  of  the  kin- 
dergarten method;  it  fixes  habits  in  tbe 
mind,  as  important  as  tlie  habits  of  the  body 
or  of  occupation.  That  which  you  make  a 
habit  for  yourself  becomes  the  good  or  bad 
taste  of  your  children  and  the  virtue  or  vice 
of  your  grandchildren.  We  are  all  good  or 
bad,  not  because  of  the  circumstances  that 
confront  us,  but  because  of  the  attitude  of 
mind  in  which  we  confront  circumstances. 
A  heap  of  damp  clay  in  the  road  suggests  to 


53 


one  boy  modelling  a  rabbit,  to  another  mak- 
ing a  mnd-ball  to  throw  at  a  policeman. 
You  cannot  arrange  the  life  of  your  child 
so  that  he  shall  never  have  to  pass  a  heap 
of  damp  clay  ;  but  you  can  tiaiu  his  mind 
in  channels  that  shall  determine  what  he 
he  will  think  about  when  he  meets  damp 
clay.  You  cannot  make  a  boy  good  by 
hemming  him  iu  with  silken  curtains;  evil 
dwells  within  as  well  as  without,  and  he 
may  need  outlets  rather  than  curtains.  Nor 
can  you  keep  yourself  safe  from  evil  by  lock- 
ing uj)  evil  in  a  distant  part  of  the  city. 
You  can  neither  lock  evil  out  or  in.  You 
can  only  supply  educational  forces  by  which 
to  determine  the  attitude  of  the  growing 
soul  to  the  evil  which  it  is  liable  at  any  mo- 
ment to  meet  from  within  or  without.  It  is 
in  creating  this  atmosphere  of  taste  that 
the  Kindergarten  excels;  the  taste  that  in  a 
second  generation  becomes  virtue.  I  can 
think  of  no  better  description  of  it  than  as 
a  divine  hypnotism  of  the  soul ;  a  method  of 
mental  "suggestion,"  by  which  the  teacber 
determines  for  the  young  soul  under  her 
guidance,  not  the  circumstances  it  is  to  en- 
counter, but  the  attitude  it  shall  assume 
towards  whatever  circumstances  may  con- 
front it,  whether  of  o;ood  or  evil. 


Many  liave  objected  to  tlie  public  recog- 
nition of  kiiulergarteu  on  the  gronnd  tbat 
their  own  children  in  private  schools  have 
not  been  benefited  by  it.  They  forget  a 
difference  in  the  aim  of  edncation  in  pri- 
vate and  pnblic  schools.  In  the  latter 
its  object  is  not  to  ornament  with  ''  fanci- 
ful "  edncation  the  minds  of  children  already 
too  mnch  amused  perhaps  at  home,  but  to 
reach  a  class  for  whom  whatever  seems  "or- 
namental" or  "fanciful"  in  the  method, 
is  the  only  ornament  of  their  lives.  To 
children  with  dozens  of  "gifts"  and  hun- 
dreds of  playthings  in  their  homes,  the  two 
or  three  more  little  "  gifts  "  and  toys  of  the 
kindergarten  may  become  "confusing;" 
but  to  those  who  have  only  these  two  or 
three  —  and  a  large  part  of  the  children  of 
our  public  schools  must  necessarily  come 
from  the  very  poor  —  it  is  probable  that  they 
are  not  confusing  at  all.  If  the  "little 
games  "  that  are  their  only  games,  perhaps 
seem  frivolous  to  those  whose  whole  life  out 
of  school  is  one  happy  game,  two  things  may 
be  remembered — first,  that  the  innocent 
amusement,  so  important  a  part  of  all  edu- 
cation, is  doubly  important  among  a  class 
in  whom  discontented  brooding  is  especially 
to  be  avoided ;  and,  secondly,  that  every  one 


55 


of  tliese   apparently   simple   "games"   lias 
some  ulterior  object  in  actual  instruction. 

In  reply  to  a  preference  that  has  been 
expressed  for  the  old-fashioned  education 
which  produced  "  Whittier,  Longfellow,  Bry- 
ant, Prescott,  Curtis,  and  Abraham  Lincoln," 
we  may  say  that  the  object  of  the  public 
kindergarten  is  not  to  x>rodnce  Whittiers 
and  Longfellows.  They  may  be  trusted  to 
produce  themseh-es.  The  object  is  to  train 
the  average  respectable  citizen.  Not  to  de- 
velop exceptional  men,  but  to  raise  the  level 
of  the  average.  Not  to  inspire  genius,  but 
to  lift  mediocrity.  Not  to  inculcate  exces- 
sive virtue  or  ability,  but  to  save  from  iu- 
capacity,  and  from  the  grinding  poverty,  the 
mischievous  idleness  which  sow  the  seeds  of 
criminals.  Not  to  create  six  distinguished 
men  whose  very  prominence  comes  from  the 
low  average  of  the  rest ;  but  to  elevate  a 
little  the  entire  community  of  those  whom, 
as  Kingsley  says,  we  call  "  on  Sundays  our 
brethren  and  on  week-days  Hhe  masses.'" 
Even  in  the  case  of  Whittiers  and  Lincolns, 
one  may  still  say,  in  emulation  of  the  Free 
Traders  who,  if  assured  that  the  country 
has  prospered  under  Protection,  at  once 
advance  the  argument  that  it  would  have 
prospered  more  under  Free  Trade,  that  great 


ns  are  Wliittiers  aud  Liucolns,  perhaps  even 
lliey  would  have  been  a  little  greater  if  they 
had  enjoyed  in  yonth  the  inestimable  privi- 
lege of  wet  clay  and  cubes !  It  juay  be  noted, 
also,  that  of  the  six  great  men  mentioned  all 
but  one  belonged,  not  only  to  the  privileged 
classes,  but  to  the  exceptiouallj^  privileged 
classes,  to  whom  every  possibility  of  culture 
and  generous  education  was  open  in  their 
own  homes.  This  is  not  the  class  for  whom 
Ave  make  the  appeal  of  a  public  kindergar- 
ten. To  aim  at  developing  Bryants  and 
Lowells  would  be  a  species  of  intense  selfish- 
ness, as  we  shall  be  certain  of  reaping  an 
immense  reward  for  ourselves  in  the  event- 
ful returns ;  but  we  advocate  the  public 
kindergarten,  not  in  the  hope  of  reaping 
exquisite  poems,  noble  satires,  lofty  elo- 
quence, inspiring  comradeship,  and  mag- 
nificent statesmen,  but  in  the  hope  of  mak- 
ing a  little  happier,  and  therefore  a  little 
better,  and  very  much  wiser  and  more  cap- 
able, lives  that  may  never  come  in  touch 
with  our  own  except  in  the  general  brother- 
hood of  humanity. 

We  have  even  heard  it  in  all  serious- 
ness suggested  that  the  old-fashioned  meth- 
od of  education  at  West  Point  had  pro- 
duced verv  fine  men  and  citizens  without 


the  aid  of  kiiulergarten.  The  superiority  of 
West  Point  is  iudisputable ;  still,  if  it  is 
remembered  how  exceedinglj^  few  can  enter 
West  Point  of  the  sixty  million  inhabitants 
of  the  United  States,  perhaps  we  shall  re- 
ceive a  less  grudging  consent  to  devoting  a 
little  of  the  public  money  to  those  whose 
problem  of  education  is  not  that  of  kinder- 
garten or  West  Point,  but  of  kindergarten  or 
nothing.  The  aim  of  a  public  kindergarten 
is  to  develop  early  in  life,  among  a  class  less 
favored  than  those  who  usually  enter  West 
Point,  a  happiness  of  disposition  which  shall 
prevent  the  habit  of  brooding  discontent; 
the  manual  ability  to  earn  a  reasonable  live- 
lihood; the  quickened  intelligence  and  ca- 
pacity to  make  Labor  a  skilled  and  efificient 
agent  in  securing  to  itself  rights  which  at 
present  it  covets  without  knowing  how  to 
deserve  and  obtain  them;  a  result  which 
would  be  the  most  reliable  safeguard  we  can 
oppose  to  the  unfortunate  condition  whicli 
at  present  comi^els  ofttimes  eight  thousand 
of  the  glittering  bayonets  of  West  Point  to 
step  forward  to  control  eight  hundred  dis- 
contented and  brooding  hearts  from  the 
haunts  of  labor.  The  bayonets  disperse  the 
hearts — for  a  time — but  the  education  begun 
in  the  spirit  of  the  kindergarten  will  disperse 


58 


the  discontent  and  brooding  for  all  time. 
And  to  secure  this  admirable  aim,  the  hy- 
giene of  kindergarten  drill  plays  no  small 
part.  Whatever  value  mere  intellectual 
education  possesses,  it  is  comparatively  weak 
without  the  support  of  sanitary  foundation. 
That  so  large  a  part  of  kindergarten  teach- 
ing is  given  while  the  children  are  in  mo- 
tion, not  nervous  and  rebellious  motion,  but 
healthful,  natural,  and  charming  exercise, 
tends  nnich  to  that  quickened  circulation  of 
tlie  blood  which  brings,  with  rapid  change 
of  impressions  and  wise  release  from  the 
tension  of  cramped  muscles  and  slowly 
drawn  breath,  the  sanity  of  strong  bodies. 
Add  to  this  that  these  are  not  mere  gym- 
nastic exercises,  but  that  the  mind  and  im- 
agination and  thoughts  are  kept  healthfully 
at  work  while  tlie  exercise  is  going  on,  and 
you  Avill  penetrate  the  secret  of  the  new 
education.  Forbid  the  restlessness  of  a 
child,  and  the  blood  stagnates,  and  will 
eventually"  have  its  revenge,  whatever  the 
apparent  spiritual  gain  in  self-control ;  give 
the  restlessness  a  vent  in  right  directions, 
and  you  have  made  a  frieud  instead  of  an 
enemy  of  the  forces  of  nature.  One  of  the 
most  admirable  sayings  in  that  delightful 
book  AmieVs  Journal,  is  this,  "Every  real 


1100(1  is  stillod,  every  vice  stimulated,  by  saMs- 
factiou."  This  is  a  certain  tost  for  what  shall 
bo  tloiic  iu  any  given  case.  If  a  child  craved 
brandy,  you  would  not  give  it  some  to  quiet 
its  craving;  you  would  know  the  certain 
result  would  bo  before  long  a  greater  crav- 
ing for  more.  But  if  a  child  wants  to  move, 
and  you  let  him  move,  you  have  secured 
more  repose  for  him  and  from  him  in  the 
end. 

At  a  recent  exhibition  of  the  graduating 
kindergarten  teachers  from  the  Normal  Col- 
lege, a  dainty  little  by -play  in  the  back- 
ground, of  which  only  a  few  spectators  were 
aware,  was  the  prettiest  objoct-lessou  that 
could  have  been  prepared  as  an  illustration, 
though  the  performers  were  all  unconscious 
of  the  parts  they  were  playing.  A  mother 
among  the  audience  had  brought  with  her  a 
three-year  old  boy,  thoroughly  alive,  alert, 
and  restless.  He  toddled  about,  and  cooed 
and  amused  himself  with  pulling  at  things, 
till  the  distressed  mother  felt  she  must  soon 
take  him  away,  and  certainly  heard  and  saw 
nothing  of  what  was  going  on  while  she  was 
there.  Suddenlj"  the  row  of  teachers  on  the 
X)latform  rose  and  began  reciting,  illustrat- 
ing by  graceful  and  appropriate  gestures 
all  the  things  that  a  little  boy  saw  while  he 


^vas  riiDuiDg  across  a  field — the  pretty  brook, 
rmiiiiiig  almost  as  fast  as  he  ;  the  tishes  leap- 
ing in  the  brook ;  the  tall  grass  looking 
over  into  the  brook  to  see,  too ;  the  tiny 
bird's  nest  iu  the  grass ;  the  birds  flying  up 
from  the  nest  and  into  the  sky ;  the  long, 
lovely,  floating  clouds,  sailing  away,  away, 
away,  across  the  blue  heavxn.  Struck  by  the 
sudden  silence  of  my  baby- friend,  I  turned 
to  see  if  his  mother  had  taken  him  away, 
and  beheld  him  transfigured  from  a  naughty 
little  boy  into  something  far  better  than  a 
saint — an  interested,  eager,  silent,  intelligent 
child.  He  was  standing  on  tiptoe  in  his 
chair,  silent  as  a  statue  in  one  sense,  since 
he  was  no  longer  restless,  but  with  his  face 
lifted,  his  eyes  intently  watching  the  motions 
on  the  platform;  his  little  eyes  alight,  his 
whole  attitude  eager,  attentive,  interested, 
though  of  course  he  could  not  understand  a 
word  that  was  said.  His  tiny  hands  kept 
time  with  the  graceful  gestures  of  the 
teachers  in  the  distance,  as  their  hands 
swayed  with  the  breeze,  or  flew  with  the 
birds,  or  leaped  with  the  fishes,  or  sailed 
with  the  clouds.  His  restlessness  had  not 
been  checked ;  for  even  when  a  mother  can 
control  a  turbulent  child  by  forcing  it  to  sit 
still  either  by  a  caress  or  a  threat,  she  often 


does  not  realize  tlie  miscbiof  she  is  doing  to 
the  pent-np  little  body  and  the  rebellious 
little  mind;  no,  his  restlessness  had  not 
been  checked,  but  turned  in  a  beautiful  di- 
rection. He  was  silent  now,  but  his  mind 
was  active  and  his  little  heart  was  happy. 
He  had  not  been  told  he  must  not  move, 
but  he  had  been  shown  how  he  could  move 
still  more  delightfully.  He  was  keeping 
very  still,  but  his  imagination  was  doing 
wonderful  things.  He  need  not  hush  his 
little  voice,  but  see  if  he  could  imitate  a 
bird.  He  had  not  been  thwarted,  he  had 
been  developed.  He  went  home,  not  worn 
out  and  cross,  but  gentler  and  brighter  than 
ever.  He  had  not  resisted  his  impulse  to 
be  naughty,  but  he  had  found  it  pleasanter 
to  be  good.  Unless  he  kept  quite  still,  he 
could  not  see  what  was  going  on.  He  had 
not  learned  the  great  duty  of  self-control, 
perhaps,  but  he  had  acquired  something 
better — a  tendency  to  habits  that  would  not 
need  to  be  controlled. 

The  physical  restlessness,  in  one  way  so 
troublesome  when  it  is  the  nervous  outbreak 
of  unused  energies,  in  another  way  so  de- 
lightful, when  it  is  spontaneous  but  well- 
directed  motion,  moving  with  physical  grace 
to  the  rhythm  of  an  intellectual  idea,  sug- 


G2 


gests  anotber  great  advantage  of  the  kinder- 
garten in  the  public  schools.  We  know  that 
the  kindergarten  makes  children  happy,  in 
itself  alone  an  object  ^yorth  sacrificing  much 
for;  we  know  that  it  trains  the  heart  and 
the  artistic  sense  as  well  as  the  mind;  that 
it  cultivates  feeling  as  well  as  knowledge, 
courtesy  and  manners  as  well  as  facts,  imag- 
ination as  well  as  reason  and  memory  ;  but 
more  than  that,  it  keeps  the  little  body  well, 
and  the  little  mind  sane  as  well  as  active; 
or  perhaps  one  might  even  say,  with  still 
more  justice,  sane  because  it  is  active  in 
many,  and  always  in  wise  ways.  The  nec- 
essary captivity  of  poor  little  restless  bodies 
in  the  long  school  hours  is  well  known  to  be 
an  objection.  During  an  investigation  of 
the  over-crowded  primary-schools,  the  state- 
ment was  made  that  even  the  recess  given 
could  hardly  afford  much  relief;  there  was 
no  yard  big  enough  for  the  children  to  run 
about  in,  and  even  the  rooms  were  not  large 
enough  for  free  movement ;  so  that  to  ob- 
tain something  of  the  desired  release  for 
fretted  limbs,  the  children  were  formed  into 
files  and  marched  round  the  aisles  and  down- 
stairs! Take,  again,  in  schools  a  little  more 
fortunate,  the  gymnastic  class,  a  form  of  or- 
ganized exercise  only  a  makeshift  at  the 


best,  witli  its  dull,  heavy,  self-conscious,  ex- 
cessive effort  at  motiou.  Of  how  little  ben- 
efit this  deliberate  exercise  compared  with 
the  spontaneous  flutter  of  little  hands,  not 
weighed  down  with  dumb-bells,  but  made 
alive  with  eagerness,  lifted  above  the  head 
and  sailing  with  clouds,  or  bending  like 
grasses,  or  flying  like  birds.  It  is  the  dif- 
ference between  giving  plants  lattice-work 
to  support  them,  and  giving  them  the  sun 
and  air  and  water  that  enable  them  to  sup- 
port themselves.  Add  to  this  the  glad  out- 
break into  well-trained  singing,  the^iatriotic 
march  with  banners,  the  graceful  games  that 
teach  them  to  be  kind  as  well  as  clever; 
then  they  come  back  to  their  little  chairs, 
glad  to  rest,  instead  of  hating  an  enforced 
stillness,  ready  to  learn  aritlimetic  and  color 
by  stringing  beads,  or  to  make  a  lovely  de- 
sign for  mamma's  bureau-cover  out  of  a  geo- 
metrical problem.  We  have  long  known 
that  sedentary  training  of  the  mind,  even  to 
very  high  things,  is  somewhat  dangerous. 
First  we  tried  physical  exercise  as  abrnpt  and 
severe  and  unnatural  as  the  intellectual  ef- 
fort, in  the  hope  to  counteract  the  iutel- 
lectual  strain ;  but  gymnastics  at  the  best 
are  but  a  corrective,  a  medicine ;  what  we 
need,  old  and  young,  is  the  rouuded  develop- 


G4 


Dieiit  where  nothiug  is  abnormal,  and  where 
we  need  not  balance  one  error  by  another. 
This  is  the  element  that  Delsarte  has  intro- 
duced into  gymnastics — a  mental  idea,  a 
feeling  of  the  heart,  an  artistic  sympathy 
with  grace,  and  a  sense  of  dainty  humor. 
These  make  movement  a  delight,  and  itself 
a  development  and  an  inspiration,  not  a 
mere  palliative  relief.  The  mental  and  moral 
sanity  that  comes  from  perfect  health,  and 
the  perfect  health  that  depends  so  much  on 
mental  and  moral  sanity,  are  exquisitely  in- 
ter woveA.  You  can  aid  each  by  developing 
the  other.  The  kindergarten  system  that 
keeps  body  and  mind  in  harmony  is  working 
incalculably  more  good  than  the  mere  intel- 
lectual training  of  the  ordinary  schools ;  the 
latter  at  best  can  only  congratulate  them- 
selves when  the  pupils,  by  sheer  effort  at 
self-control,  have  remembered  tobehave  quite 
properly  all  through  the  session. 

To  illustrate,  however,  how  the  old  order 
changes,  and  how  now  it  gives  place  to  the 
new,  a  brief  series  of  contrasts  may  be  given 
between  the  old  and  the  new  systems,  as  fol- 
lows; the  idea  being  to  show,  not  the  ab- 
solute method,  but  the  difference  in  spirit, 
which  is  at  the  base  of  the  two  kinds  of  in- 
struction. 


65 


Old-Fashioxed  Teacher.  "Take  care, 
Jobuuy !  I  see  you  are  restless.  Unless 
you  learu  to  sit  perfectly  still,  I  shall  have 
to  give  you  a  bad  mark." 

Kindergarten  Teacher  "  I  see  you  are 
restless,  Johnny.  Suppose  we  play  a  game 
to  rest  ourselves  a  little,  and  move  about. 
We  mustu't  interrupt  our  lessons,  but  we 
can  play  astronomy,  and  tbat  will  keep  us 
moving ;  because,  you  know,  though  the 
stars  look  so  quiet,  a  great  many  of  them  do 
keep  moving  all  the  time.  Margaret  shall 
be  the  sun,  and  Johnny  shall  be  tbe  earth, 
and  you  must  turn  round  on  your  own  feet, 
Johnny,  all  the  time  that  you  keep  moving 
round  the  sun.  That  is  the  way  the  earth 
does,  and  Herbert  can  be  the  moon,  and 
keep  going  round  the  earth,  that  is,  round 
Johnny,  while  Johnny  keeps  going  round 
Margaret.  Now  I  think  Johnny  will  soon 
be  tired  enough  to  want  to  be  a  boy  agaiu 
and  sit  still." 

O.-F.  T.  "  Washington  and  Jefferson  were 
very  wise  men  who  made  good  laws  for  their 
country.  And  you  must  all  remember  always 
to  obey  the  laws,  and  if  anything  happens  to 
the  country,  you  must  be  willing  to  leave 
everything    else    to   defend   her.     Now   see 


if  you   remember   what   laws   Wasbiugtou 
made." 

K.  T.  "Now  we  will  march  a  while.  Here 
is  a  little  American  flag  for  you  all  to  wave, 
and  Miss  Fanny  will  play  the  piano,  and 
you  can  all  sing,  if  you  like.  Suppose 
we  sing  'The  Star- Spangled  Banner;'  or 
would  you  rather  sing  'My  Country,  'tis  of 
Thee  ?'  To-morrow  I  shall  dismiss  school 
half  an  hour  earlier,  so  that  you  can  go  out 
and  see  Sherman's  funeral  procession  when 
it  goes  past  here.  What  did  Sherman  do  ? 
Well,  to-morrow,  when  you  have  seen  how 
much  the  country  thought  of  him,  and 
mourns  him,  I  w^ill  tell  you." 

O.-F.  T.  "I  see,  Johnny,  that  you  camiot 
sit  still,  even  when  you  are  afraid  of  a  had 
mark.  Come  here  ;  I  shall  have  to  tie  your 
hands  behind  you,  and  then  you  must  go 
aud  stand  in  that  corner  half  an  hour,  till  I 
see  you  have  learned  to  be  quiet." 

K.  T.  "  Now,  children,  if  you  are  tired  of 
marching,  you  can  come  and  sit  down.  Here 
is  a  pencil  aud  some  paper,  and  I  want  you 
to  draw  me  a  picture  of  what  you  like  best." 

O.-F.  T.  "When  I  came  into  the  school- 
room this  morning  I  found  a  caricature  on 


tbe  blackboard  with  '  Teacher '  written  under 
it.  The  boy  who  did  it  must  stand  up  and 
confess  ;  come  here,  sir!" 

K.  T.  "Now  you  maj'  briug  me  the  pict- 
ures you  have  drawn  of  what  you  like  best. 
Johnny's  is  a  dog;  I  can  see  it  is  a  dog, 
though  its  legs  are  a  little  too  short,  Johnny. 
What  is  it  ?  You  meant  him  to  be  running, 
and  his  legs  look  shorter  when  he  is  run- 
ning? Well,  perhaps  you  are  right;  we 
will  all  look  on  the  way  home  for  a  dog  run- 
ning, and  see  if  we  think  you  are  right.  And 
Lucy  has  drawn  a  doll,  and  Katie  an  orange, 
and  Bertie  a  stick  of  candy,  and  Mary  has 
drawn  a  very  pretty  face ;  so  Mary  likes  some- 
body's face  best.     Whose  face  is  it,  Mary  V 

Child  {shyly).  *' Please,  teacher,  it's 
yours !" 

O.-F.  T.  *'Two  and  two  make  four,  and 
four  and  two  make  six,  and  six  and  two 
make  eight.  Yon  must  repeat  that  ten  times, 
Johnny,  before  you  can  go  home." 

K.  T.  "  Would  you  like  to  take  home  to 
mamma  a  string  of  beads?  Well,  here  is  a 
needle  and  thread  and  there  are  the  beads. 
First,  put  on  two  blue  beads,  and  then  two 
red  beads ;  that  makes  four  beads ;  and  then 
two  purple  beads,  that  makes  six  ;  and  then 


(58 


two  white  beads,  that  makes  eight.  Now  we 
will  put  on  another  eight ;  but  we'll  change 
it  a  little  :  first  two  red,  then  two  blue,  then 
two  white,  and  then  two  purple  ;  that  makes 
another  eight.  Now  tell  me  how  we  can 
make  another  eight,  a  little  differently  ;  yes, 
that's  right :  two  purple,  two  red,  two  blue, 
two  w  hite  ;  and  now"  another ;  why,  what  a 
long  string  wcj're  getting!  Here  are  ten  eights 
already  ;  now"  you  can  go  home,  and  ask 
mamma  how  many  beads  there  are  in  the 
whole  string.  She  will  tell  you,  and  won't 
she  be  surprised!  What  is  it?  You  don't 
want  to  go  home  ?  you'd  like  to  make  anoth- 
er string  for  sister  Jennie  ?  Well,  we'll 
make  another  string.  Only  suppose  wo 
make  Jennie's  different;  let's  make  hers  a 
string  of  fives — two  blue  beads  and  then 
three  red  beads  ;  two  purple  beads  and  three 
white  beads,  till  we  get  a  string  of  ten  fives. 
Then  you  must  ask  Jennie  how  many  beads 
there  are  in  all." 

O.-F.  T.  "Unless  the  boy  who  put  that 
pin  in  my  chair  confesses  at  once,  I  shall 
have  to  keep  the  whole  class  in  at  re- 
cess!'' 

K.  T.  "  I'm  very  sorry,  children  ;  but  I 
shall  have  to  stay  iu  at  recess  to-day.     You 


can  all  go  out  in  tlie  yard  aud  play  at  what- 
ever you  like.  I  meant  to  show  you  tbat 
new  out-door  game  to-day ;  but  I  can't,  be- 
cause yesterday  some  of  you  did  not  take  as 
much  pains  as  you  could  have  taken  with 
tlie  designs  I  wanted  you  to  make  of  colored 
paper.  To-day  I  shall  have  to  stay  in  and 
plan  a  design  for  you  that  is  easier.  If  you 
do  this  better  when  you  come  in,  then  to- 
morrow I'll  go  out  with  you  at  recess  and 
show  you  the  new  game." 

O.-F.  T.  "  And,  children,  Washington  was 
a  very  remarkable  man  ;  he  never  told  a 
lie." 

Kindergarten  Ctiild.  '' Please,  teacher, 
lots  of  people  don't  tell  lies." 

K.  T.  "Now,  the  boy  who  makes  the  pret- 
tiest house  out  of  these  twenty-fiA  e  blocks, 
to-morrow  can  walk  at  the  head  when  we 
march,  and  carry  the  big  flag." 

Kindergarten  Boy.  "  Please,  teacher, 
you  told  us  yesterday  that  we  were  always 
to  let  the  girls  go  first." 

K.  T.  "  Yes,  that  is  the  nicest  way  to  do. 
Well,  then,  the  boy  who  makes  the  prettiest, 
house  can  choose  which  girl  shall  march  at 
the  head." 


O.-F.  T.  "  Henry  Steele,  you  were  five 
minutes  late  this  morniug;  I  shall  keep  yon 
in  ten  minutes  after  school." 

K.  T.  "  Harry,  you  were  five  minutes  late 
this  morniug;  what  did  you  see  on  the  way 
that  interested  you  so  much?  A  bird  teach- 
ing the  little  birds  to  fly  ?  Well,  that  was 
worth  stopping  for.  Tell  us  about  it,  and 
perhaps  we  can  make  a  new  game  like  it. 
Now,  to-morrow  morning  suppose  you  all 
take  five  minutes  more  on  the  w;iy  to  school, 
and  sec  who  will  have  the  most  to  say  about 
what  he  has  seen  on  the  way.  The  one  who 
has  seen  the  most  things  shall  beat  the  drum 
when  Ave  march,  and  the  one  who  has  seen 
the  most  interesting  thing  shall  carry  the 
flag.  There  will  be  the  same  things  for  you 
all  to  see  ;  but  the  kind  of  things  you  do  see 
and  notice  will  show  me  what  kind  of  a 
boy  you  are." 

And  the  next  morning,  when  Herbert  Wiu- 
throp  said  he  hadn't  seen  anything,  because 
he  came  upon  a  man  abusing  a  horse,  and 
had  run  round  the  corner  to  find  an  officer 
to  tell  him  he  mustn't,  the  children  all  voted 
that  Herbert  should  beat  the  drum,  because, 
though  he  hadn't  seen  anything,  he  had  done 
something,  which  was  even  better. 


And  to  coiitimie  tlie  wise  process  of  cou- 
densatiou,  let  us  reduce  even  this  brief  se- 
ries of  contrasts  to  still  briefer  kindergarten 
axioms : 

The  kindergarten  child  is  not  sent  to 
school;  he  goes  of  his  own  accord. 

He  is  not  kept  in  school ;  he  stays,  because 
he  likes  it. 


he  has  to  be  told  that  it  is  time  to  go. 

What  he  liates — vacation. 

He  does  not  answer  questions  ;  he  asks 
them. 

He  learns,  not  what  he  is  told,  but  what 
he  finds  out. 

He  never  forgets  ;  because  he  is  never  told 
anything  which  he  has  not  first  wanted  to 
know. 

The  child  of  the  primary -school  knows 
what  he  feels  ;  the  child  of  the  kindergarten 
feels  what  he  knows. 


Tbe  ordinary  ljf>y  crosses  a  field  to  get 
somewhere;  the  child  of  the  kiudergarteu 
sees  things  on  his  way. 

The  ordinary  child  remembers  to  he  good ; 
the  kindergarten  child  forgets  to  be  nanghty. 

The  high  -  school  gradnates  exceptional 
scholars,  \^■ho  Avill  frame  wise  laws  for  the 
connnnnity  ;  the  kindergarten  trains  a  com- 
munity that  will  need  less  the  restraint  of 
so  much  law. 

The  more  public  kindergartens  now,  the 
fewer  jails  hereafter. 

Mothers  think  up  little  things  to  amuse 
their  children  when  they  come  home  from 
school;  kindergarten  children  bring  home 
from  school  little  things  to  amuse  their 
mothers. 

Mothers  tell  their  children  pretty  stories 
at  bedtime  to  make  them  forget  the  weary 
hours  at  school ;  kindergarten  children  ask 
for  nothing  better  than  to  remember  the 
pretty  things  they  have  learned,  or  heard, 
or  seen,  or  made,  at  school,  and  repeat  them 
to  their  mothers. 


73 


lu  the  ordinary  school  tlie  child  feeds  his 
mind  ;  iu  the  kindergarten  his  mind  feeds 
him. 

In  training  the  intellect  merely,  the  ordi- 
nary teacher  runs  the  risk  of  making  a  bad 
boy  worse,  by  increasing  his  capacity,  his 
ingenuity,  his  resources;  in  training  the 
heart  and  cultivating  the  artistic  sense,  in 
addition  to  encouraging  the  mind,  the  kin- 
dergarten teacher  is  a  homoeopathic  physi- 
cian, constantly  correcting  and  restraining 
the  symptoms  he  develops. 


A  PLEA  FOR  THE   PURE   KINDER- 
GARTEN. 

BY   JEXNY    B.  MERRILL. 

The  kiudergarten  system  offers  the  most 
ingeuious  arrangement  of  exercises  ever 
devised  for  the  dev^elopmeut  of  the  child. 

The  system  is  based  upon  philosophical 
principles  —  principles  which  do  not  differ 
essentially  from  those  propounded  by  other 
educators  than  Froebel,  but  in  this  system 
these  principles  are  worked  out  to  a  practi- 
cal issue,  the  details  of  wliich  are  astonishing 
in  their  simplicity  and  in  their  adaptation  of 
means  to  desired  ends. 

The  system  may  be  called  "an  invention," 
for  it  is  unique,  and  yet  it  is  in  reality  noth- 
ing but  a  systematic  arrangement  of  plays 
and  occupations  gathered  from  a  careful  ob- 
servation— 

(a)  Of  the  methods  of  wise  mothers. 

(b)  Of  children  at  play. 


(c)  Of  Xatiuo  in  the  plant,  animal  and 
mineral  kingdoms — 

(d)  And  a  consideration  of  the  fundamental 
industries  of  life,  and  the  possibility  of  imi- 
tating such  industries  in  children's  play  and 
work. 

The  system  of  gifts  and  occupations  is  so 
philosophicalhj  arranged  that  it  is  a  grave 
question  how  far  it  can  he  modified  and  the  in- 
tegrity of  the  system  fully  preserved.  This 
we  shall  endeavor  to  prove  by  an  examina- 
tion of  the  various  details  of  gifts  and  occu- 
pations, and  by  criticisms  upon  certain  in- 
novations which  have  become  more  or  less 
popular. 

It  is  one  thing  to  understand,  appreciate, 
and  approve  an  educational  princij)le,  and 
another  to  apply  it  successfully. 

The  kindergarten,  as  it  is  commonly  seen 
and  known,  is  a  visible  application  of  certain 
fundamental  educational  principles.  Many 
persons  can  see  and  appreciate  the  applica- 
tion who  give  no  thought  to  the  principles 
underlying  it.  It  commends  itself  to  those 
who  love  children  and  humanity  because  it 
furnishes  pleasant  employment  for  little 
hands,  and  brings  the  ready  smile  to  the 
childish  face  ;  but  it  is  only  after  the  closest 


study  tliat  we  begiu  to  realize  the  wonder- 
ful adaptation  of  means  to  ends  in  this  well- 
organized  system. 

We  speak,  not  of  the  great  underlying 
principles  of  the  kindergarten,  which  can  be 
variously  applied  at  the  different  periods  of 
school  life,  but  of  that  definite  arrangement 
of  gifts  and  occupations  that  was  planned 
by  Froebel  for  the  child  under  seven  years 
of  age. 

It  is  becoming  so  general  to  hear  of  the 
kindergarten  prin(iples  and  their  wider 
application,  and  of  the  freedom  that  may 
be  exercised  even  in  the  use  of  the  well- 
known  kindergarten  material,  that  there 
is  a  danger  of  forgetting  that  Froebel 
was  not  only  a  philosopher  but  a  jnaciical 
worhnau. 

Rarely  do  we  find  such  practical  ability 
as  a  teacher  united  with  sucli  deep  philo- 
sophic understanding  of  tlie  child -nature 
and  indeed  of  humanity  in  general. 

There  is  apparently  a  tendency  at  the 
present  time,  under  the  plea  of  elevating  the 
spirit  above  the  letter,  to  depart  more  or 
less  widely  from  the  exercises  of  the  kinder- 
garten as  developed  by  Froebel.  But  when 
such  a  genius  as  Froebel,  one  who  himself 
was  the  master-spirit,  has  given  us  the  letter, 


it  is  both  fittiog  aud  safe  that  any  departure 
be  most  carefully  considered. 

It  is  our  inirpose  to  enumerate  some  of 
the  details  of  the  methods  developed  by 
Froebel  from  his  lifetime  of  observation  and 
(experience,  noting  at  the  same  time  the  need 
in  the  child  which  suggested  the  use  of  the 
particular  means. 

I.  We  tind  a  graded  series  of  gifts  and  oc- 
cupations, the  first  six  of  which  are  num- 
bered to  correspond  witli  the  year  of  intro- 
duction. 

These  six  gifts  are,  in  general  terms,  mere- 
ly balls  aud  blocks  ;  and  what  more  ordinary 
playthings  could  have  been  selected?  But 
when  we  examine  into  the  details  of  ar- 
rangement, for  example,  of  the  First  Gift, 
which  consists  of  six  small  colored  worsted 
halls  with  cords  for  suspension,  we  find  that 
behind  each  descriptive  adjective  there  is  a 
philosophic  reason. 

(a)  And  first,  why  a  h(/ll  ?  No  one  denies 
that  a  ball  is  a  good  plaything  from  child- 
hood to  maniiood,  but  how  few  babies  have 
actually  received  the  ball  for  i\i%  first  play- 
thing, and  at  the  early  age  suggested  by 
Froebel!  What  led  Froebel  to  place  the 
ball  first  ?  Its  unity,  its  simplicity,  its  beau- 
ty, its  ready  motion,  aud  its  significance  as 


a  symbol,  for  it  may  stand,  as  the  child  ad- 
vances, for  the  apple,  orange,  peach,  plum  ; 
for  the  earth,  sun,  or  moon. 

Its  motions  when  suspended  represent  the 
ticking  clock,  the  ringing  bell,  the  turning 
wheel,  the  hopping  bird. 

Its  unity,  simplicitj^,  and  beauty  make  it 
appropriate  for  the  very  early  use  suggested 
by  Froebel,  namely,  suspending  it  over  a 
child's  bed  at  a  proper  distance  from  the 
eye,  when  the  infant  is  but  six  weeks  old. 
It  soon  becomes  au  object  to  hold  the  at- 
tention of  the  opening  mind.  This  is  so 
simple  an  exercise  that  even  educated  peo- 
ple often  overlook  its  value,  and  even  smile 
when  a  kiudergartner  mentions  it. 

Many  think  that  a  red  shawl,  or  a  bright 
flower,  or  a  variegated  ball  much  larger  in 
size,  would  answer  the  purpose.  Others 
would  prefer  a  hell  or  a  rattle  !  but  Froebel 
insisted  upon  such  an  apparently  trifling  de- 
tail as  a  small  red  ball  at  the  age  of  six  iveeJcs. 
Experience  as  well  as  reason  show  the  value 
of  his  judgment. 

The  child  acquires  a  certain  degree  of 
concentration  upon  a  given  object,  and  as 
the  same  ball  appears  day  after  day  for  many 
weeks,  we  have  an  excellent  illustration  of 
the  way  in  which  "perception  goes  on  per- 


fc?cting  itself,"  so  clearly  set  forth  bj^  Ros- 
mini. 

Let  me  attempt  to  iiidicate  the  steps  in 
the  growth  of  the  perception.  At  first  the 
infant  becomes  conscious  that  "  something 
exists."*  Then  possibly  the  bright  color 
(red  or  yellow  is  taken)  makes  its  impres- 
sion ;  then  the  simple  roundness  (of  course 
this  is  not  fully  recognized  at  this  point). 

Later  comes  thought  of  motion,  for  after 
a  few  weeks  the  ball  is  to  be  swung  from 
right  to  left,  and  later  still,  forward  and 
backward,  and  up  and  down. 

In  the  last  exercise,  after  a  time  the  ball 
touches  the  child's  face  or  hands;  soon  the 
child  puts  forth  his  hand,  and  after  many 
efi'orts  at  last  grasps  it.  Now  comes  percep- 
tion of  distance  and  of  substance  ;  the  sense 
of  touch  and  the  muscular  sense  are  aroused, 
and  the  notion  of  a  solid  is  attained  to  a 
degree. 

Baby  bites  the  ball ;  it  is  soft.  He  throws 
it  down  ;  it  disappears. 

It  may  be  argued  that  all  these  ideas  would 
be  gained  gradually  from  any  object,  but 
would  they  all  be  united  and  recognized  as 
belonging  to  one  object  so  soon  as  by  this 

*  Rosraini.— Sec.  109. 


simple  device  of  calliug  and  recalling  the 
child's  attention  daily  to  one  simple  and 
pretty  form  ? 

(b)  But  in  the  second  place,  why  8/.r  balls? 
Why  are  certain  fixed  colors  nsed,  and  why 
are  the  balls  of  worstetl  ? 

There  is  a  reasonable  answer  to  every 
question. 

The  six  standard  colors  of  the  spectrum 
only  are  used  ;  here  again  we  liave  reference 
to  nature  ;  the  kindergarten  material  is  full 
of  such  references. 

The  variety  is  sufficient  for  the  first  year; 
a  few  strong  impressions  of  color  are  made, 
and  the  number,  six,  is  not  too  many. 

Worsted  is  soft  and  warm  and  pleasant 
to  the  baby's  touch,  and  it  will  not  hurt. 
It  makes  a  quiet  playmate,  and  again  it 
points  to  nature,  for  when  baby  is  old  enough 
for  a  simple  story,  he  will  find  new  pleasure 
in  his  ball  when  he  hears  about  the  lamb 
and  its  soft  wool,  which  it  gives  for  a  coat 
for  baby  and  for  his  ball. 

II.  Another  important  detail  in  the  kinder- 
garten method  is  the  selection  of  the  forms 
of  the  Second  Gift,  viz.:  the  sphere,  the  cube, 
and  the  cylinder. 

There  are  those  who  have  essayed  to  im- 
prove upon  Froebel's  judgment  by  adding 


81 


the  cone  and  spheroids,  but  we  again  recog- 
nize the  snperior  wisdom  of  Froebel,  wlio 
after  careful  thought  rejected  all  but  these 
three  typical  forms,  and  concentrated  the 
child's  attention  upon  them,  leaving  modifi- 
cations for  advanced  work.  It  requires 
great  wisdom  to  be  as  simple  as  this  great 
man. 

Mrs.  Mary  H.  Peabody,  in  writing  of  the 
forms  of  this  gift,  says,  "They  are  chosen  as 
representing  in  school  the  gifts  of  the  Crea- 
tor to  man  as  seen  in  nature. 

"They  present  the  substance  of  creation  in 
its  mineral,  vegetable,  and  animal  divisions. 
Overhead  hangs  the  sphere  of  the  sun ;  un- 
derfoot lies  the  crystal  kingdom,  whose  sim- 
plest form  is  the  cube;  between  the  two 
partaking  of  the  qualities  of  each,  rise  the 
forms  of  life,  all  showing  the  cylindrical 
figure,  from  the  grass  of  the  field  to  the 
working  fingers  of  man."* 

But  not  only  is  the  selection  of  the 
forms  of  interest,  but  also  the  change  of 
material  from  worsted  to  wood;  again  we 
find  a  natural  substance  waiting  for  its 
story  to  be  told. 

While  the  sphere  is  retained  as  the  cou- 

*  Kindergarten  and  Primary  School,  page  121. 


a 


82 


nectiug  link  with  the  First  Gift,  we  note 
the  strong  contrasts  preseutecl. 

The  child  leanis  by  aceentuating  differ- 
ences. 

The  high  color  is  lacking.  This  helps  to 
concentrate  attention  upon  the  form  more 
perfectly.  The  material,  wood,  is  hard,  not 
soft;  the  noise  as  it  falls  or  rolls  on  the  table 
attracts  attention  through  the  sense  of  hear- 
ing, and  is  in  strong  contrast  with  the  qniet 
worsted  ball.  The  wooden  sphere  is  heavy, 
not  light;  it  is  smooth,  not  rough.  And  all 
its  differeuces  seem  to  accord  with  the  grow- 
ing child,  for  they  suggest  strength  and  more 
vigorous  action. 

There  is  also  the  satisfaction  of  not  hav- 
ing lost  an  old  friend,  for  although  the  difter- 
ences  are  all  attractive,  still  the  similarities 
are  scarcely  less  pleasing. 

The  wooden  ball  rolls  and  swings,  ticks 
and  rings,  and  is  as  active  as  a  ball  can  be. 
But  it  can  roll  faster  and  farther,  for  there  is 
less  friction. 

Again  another  contrast  —  baby  must  not 
throw  the  wooden  ball;  it  is  hard;  it  will 
hurt ;  it  can  break  other  objects. 

Here  is  a  new  lesson,  one  of  carefulness ; 
a  lesson  also  in  self-control,  for  there  is 
scarcely  a  "must  not"  of  any  kind  in  the 


worsted  ball.  Now  there  must  ueeds  be  re- 
straint, but  baby  is  older  aud  ready  for  the 
moral  lesson. 

Another  important  detail  of  method  in  re- 
gard to  this  gift  is  the  order  of  presenting 
the  forms. 

As  already  suggested,  the  method  of  tbc 
kindergarten  presents  strong  contrasts  to 
the  child ;  hence  it  ma}'^  readily  be  inferred 
that  the  cube  and  not  the  cylinder  is  present- 
ed directly  next  the  sphere. 

It  must  be  after  a  study  of  the  cube  that 
the  child  gets  his  first  true  notion  of  the 
unity  of  the  ball.  He  has  no  means  of  ap- 
preciating fully  the  simple  outline  of  the 
sphere  until  he  has  compared  it  with  the 
many  sides,  edges,  and  corners  of  the  cube. 

He  returns  to  the  sphere  to  find  it  all  one. 

We  will  not  undertake  to  enutnerate  all 
the  striking  contrasts  between  the  sphere 
and  the  cube  to  which  the  attention  of  the 
child  is  called,  but  pass  on  to  note  the  satis- 
faction which  the  child  feels  in  receiving 
auother  block  (the  cylinder)  which  rolls  like 
the  ball,  and  yet  stands  fi^rm  like  the  cube, 
and  is  different  from  both. 

Here  is  seen  the  connecting  link,  the  inter- 
mediate, which  Froebel  always  strives  to 
present.    This  gift  is  an  outward  expression 


of  the  great  iuuer  educational  law  which 
Froebel  called  "  the  law  of  the  couuectiou  of 
opposites,"  or  "the  law  of  contrasts  and 
their  connections."* 

There  is  a  held,  indeed,  in  the  cylinder,  for 
the  study  of  both  similarities  and  ditferences. 
Here  in  the  Second  Gift  we  find  Froebel's  key- 
note of  method  that  nothing  is  ever  to  be 
studied  for  itself  alone,  but  always  in  its  re- 
lations to  wbat  has  gone  before.  Thus  the 
chain  of  association  is  strong,  and  what  is 
learned  is  a  gradual  development  corre- 
sponding to  the  inward  development  of  the 
child. 

III.  This  careful  connection  of  the  new 
with  the  old  is  further  illustrated  in  the  in- 
troduction of  the  Third  Gift,  \Yhich  as  a 
whole  presents  the  form  of  the  cube,  and  yet 
is  new  in  being  subdivided  into  eight  small 
cubes. 

We  do  not  purpose  to  indicate  the  full  use 
of  any  of  these  kindergarten  gifts,  but,  as 
before  stated,  simply  to  set  forth  a  few  im- 
portant details,  with  their  underlying  phi- 
losophy, in  order  to  establish  our  argument. 

In  the  Third  Gift  we  will  refer,  therefore, 
to  but  one  principle  of  method  which,  while 

*  Kindergarten  and  Primari/  School,  page  63, 


it  appears  in  the  precediug  gift,  becomes 
the  main  feature  in  this  and  sev^eral  im- 
mediately succeeding  gifts,  viz.:  huikling  or 
construction. 

To  lead  the  child  to  build,  to  construct,  to 
make,  is  a  ruling  feature  throughout  the 
kindergarten  methods;  and  Froebel,  learning 
as  he  did  from  observing  the  ordinary  plays 
of  children,  wisely  placed  several  sets  of 
building-blocks  among  his  gifts. 

They  are  so  graded  as  to  give  each  a  spe- 
cific educational  value. 

They  diifer  from  the  sets  of  blocks  in 
ordinary  use  in  being,  as  a  whole,  cubical  in 
form,  and  are  comj)osed  of  a  tixed  number  of 
blocks,  each  separate  block  bearing  a  certain 
relation  to  the  cube,  which  is  always  to  be' 
rebuilt  at  the  close  of  the  exercise. 

Thus,  both  analysis  and  synthesis  are 
recognized.  Other  forms,  as  prisms,  appear 
in  the  Fourth,  Fifth,  and  Sixth  Gifts,  but 
they  are  always  studied  in  relation  to  the 
cube,  as  half-cube,  quarter-cube. 

The  work  to  be  accomplished  by  the  use 
of  these  gifts  is  classified  under  three  heads, 
namely  :  forms  of  knowledge,  forms  of  life, 
and  forms  of  l.ieauty. 

This  is  a  detail  of  method  which  appears 
asain  and  airain  in  the  use  of  all  the  uifts 


86 


and  occnj)atious,  aud  is  lielpfiil,  suggestive 
and  comprehensive.  By  means  of  this  divi- 
sion each  gift  and  occupation  of  the  kinder- 
garten is  made  to  touch — 

1.  Mathematics — in  the  "forms  of  knowl- 
edge." 

2.  Xature,  and  the  common  objects  of  life, 
whetlier  natural  or  made  by  man — in  the 
"forms  of  life." 

3.  Art  (especially  designing)  —  in  the 
"  forms  of  beauty." 

There  are  incidents  related  in  Iieminis- 
cenccs  of  Froehel,  sliowing  how  these  differ- 
ent phases  of  the  work  were  the  means  of 
enlisting  the  interest  and  attention  of  men 
of  widely  different  professions. 

For  example,  "  A  privy  councillor  from 
Berlin,"  writes  the  Baroness  Marenholz, 
"  who  had  made  some  objections  to  the 
playing  of  the  children,  and  had  also  re- 
peatedly opposed  my  statements,  expressed 
the  wish  to  learn  the  manner  in  which  Froe- 
bel  prepared  for  mathematical  ideas  by  his 
plays  and  occupations.  This  hitherto  very 
cold  and  reserved  gentleman  became  quite 
animated  when  Froebel  formed  various  fig- 
ures with  his  little  sticks,  and  then  explained 
by  these  embodied  lines  the  areas  enclosed 
in   the   different   surfaces   and   angles,   and 


especially  tbe  relations  of  size  and  number 
of  tbe  geometrical  figures,  and  tben  still 
fnrtber  tbe  simple  rex^reseutations  of  form 
and  number  witli  otber  materials."  * 

At  tbe  same  time  a  young  artist  was  j)res- 
ent,  wbo  asked  impatiently, ''Wbetber  tbe 
contemplation  of  tbe  beautiful  at  tbe  cbild- 
age  would  not  be  more  conducive  to  tbe 
awakening  of  tbe  imagination  tban  occupa- 
tion witb  matbematical  figures  ?" 

"  You  are  quite  rigbt,"  answered  Froebel; 
"  tbe  beautiful  is  tbe  best  means  of  edu- 
cation for  cbildbood,  as  it  bas  been  tbe 
best  means  for  tbe  education  of  tbe  bu- 
man  race.  Look,  bere  are  my  forms  of 
beauty." 

Tbis  classification  is,  of  course,  for  tbe 
teacber,  and  not  for  tbe  cbild.  Froebel  tbus 
comprebended  tbe  all-sided  possibility  of  any 
material  be  put  into  tbe  cbild's  band. 

He  did  not  plan  to  teacb  number  witb  one 
gift,  and  form  witb  anotber,  and  natural  bis- 
toiy  with  anotber;  but  he  saw  all  tbe  ele- 
ments in  any  one,  and  by  this  method,  as 
well  as  others,  the  child  is  gradually  led 
to  feel,  if  not  to  know,  the  unity,  which 
Froebel  saw  in  life. 

*  Reminiscences  of  Froebel. 


88 


IV.  Tlie  gifts  already  nieutioned  represent 
solid  geometrical  forms. 

Froebel  decided  to  follow  the  analysis  of 
the  solid,  and  thus  to  present  in  orderly  suc- 
cession, by  means  of  his  gifts,  the  plane,  the 
line,  and  the  point. 

Hence  follow  (1)  the  tablets,  representing 
squares,  triangles,  etc. ;  (2)  wooden  sticks  and 
metal  rings,  representing  the  straight  and 
curved  edges  found  upon  the  solids  already 
considered ;  and,  lastly,  (8)  lessons  with  seeds, 
representing  the  point. 

By  the  occasional  use  of  the  occupation 
of  perforating,  Froebol's  thought  is  carried 
out  in  having  the  solid  built  up,  as  it  were, 
in  the  child's  work,  as  it  has  been  previously 
analyzed  ;  for  the  occupations  proceed  syn- 
thetically from  the  point,  in  pricking,  to  the 
line  in  sewing  and  drawing ;  to  the  surface,  in 
paper  cutting,  folding,  and  weaving;  to  the 
solid  in  card-board  work  and  clay  modelling. 

V.  It  was  a  happy  thought,  indeed,  as 
well  as  a  truly  philosophical  one,  which  led 
Froebel  in  selecting  the  occupations  of  the 
kindergarten  system  to  base  them  upon  the 
simple  industries  of  life. 

By  this  means  the  child  follows  the  lead- 
ings of  the  race,  and  becomes  one  with  it  in 
so  doin<r. 


For  example,  the  occupation  of  weaving 
is  a  great  favorite  among  cbildren.  It  is 
after  carefully  weaving  in  and  out  the  little 
slips  of  paper — one  up,  one  down;  two  up, 
one  dowE,  etc.,  that  the  little  weaver  looks 
with  au  awakened  and  intelligent  interest 
upon  the  little  threads  in  a  piece  of  cloth  as 
the  teacher  draws  them  out  and  shows  how 
every  little  child  owes  a  debt  to  the  weaver 
for  his  clothing. 

Modelling  in  clay  is  another  very  ancient 
industry  of  the  race  which  Froebel  brought 
into  the  kindergarten. 

The  favor  with  which  children  regard  it 
is  an  indication  that  it  meets  a  want  in 
them  as  it  certainly  did  in  the  race.  Un- 
fortunately working  directly  in  the  soil  is 
denied  many  children  in  city  kindergartens, 
but  this  suggestion  of  the  great  industry  of 
the  cultivation  of  the  soil  is  part  of  Froe- 
bel's  complete  system. 

VI  We  pass  now  to  notice  a  few  details 
of  method  which  appeal  to  the  feelings 
rather  than  the  intellect.  Pestalozzi  em- 
phasized the  principle  '^  Activity  is  the  law 
of  childhood  ;  let  the  child  do  ;  educate  the 
hand,"  but  he  did  not  point  out  in  detail 
how  to  do  this. 

Froebel   followed    and  worked   out    this 


90 


fniidameutal  principle.  The  watchword  of 
the  kiudergarteu  is  ''  Do."  Mothers  rejoice 
in  the  kiudergarteu  because  it  gives  the 
child  something  definite  to  do.  It  furnishes 
a  vent  for  their  ceaseless  activity. 

What  do  children  do  in  the  kindergarten  ? 

They  build,  they  sew,  they  draw,  they 
prick,  they  weave,  they  fold,  they  cut,  they 
paste,  they  mould,  they  dig,  they  sing ;  they 
imitate  in  gesture,  hopping,  flying,  sowing, 
reaping,  the  turning  of  a  wheel,  the  falliug 
of  the  rain,  the  snow,  the  winding  of  a 
river,  etc. 

Not  only  is  the  love  of  doing  thus  grati- 
fied, but  underlying  this  is  the  appeal  to 
the  love  of  imitating;  for  in  all  these  ac- 
tivities the  children  become  imitators  of  the 
work  of  real  life  which  they  see  about  them 
or  hear  described  in  stories. 

It  is  sympathy,  a  feeling  with,  that  awa- 
kens this  desire  to  imitate,  and  in  the  very 
act  of  imitating  the  feeling  of  sympathy 
with  different  workmen  and  even  with  dif- 
ferent animals  is  strengthened,  and  thus  the 
child  is  again  led  to  the  feeling  of  unity,  to 
which  Froebel's  philosophy  ever  tends. 

This  love  of  unity  is  further  strengthened 
by  the  simple  detail  of  method  in  seating 
children  in  a  kindergarten. 


91 


The  children  never  sit  as  iu  ordinary 
schools,  in  rows,  one  behind  the  other,  but 
around  a  table,  that  each  may  be,  as  it  were, 
a  part  of  a  circle.  So  it  is  iu  standing  iu 
the  ring  during  the  playing  of  games. 

The  use  of  the  ring  in  playing  games  has 
long  been  in  favor  with  children,  but  it  was 
Froebel  who  realized  its  educational  force. 
Possibly  there  is  no  more  beantifnl  feature 
iu  the  kindergarten. 

We  deprecate  any  tendency  towards  fol- 
lowing a  leader  blindly. 

We  recognize  that  there  are  those  who 
would  have  a  more  perfect  kindergarten  on 
the  beach,  with  only  the  sand  and  pebbles 
and  shells  with  which  to  work  ont  the 
forms  of  knowledge,  forms  of  life,  and  forms 
of  beaut}',  than  others  with  a  cabinet  full  of 
the  best  kindergarten  material ;  but  it  is 
often  safer  to  distrust  ourselves  thau  the 
man  of  such  pre-eminent  genius. 

But  there  is  a  danger  in  having  a  system 
so  complete  in  its  detail,  to  Avhich  we  will 
BOW  refer. 

It  lies  in  the  possibility  it  affords  to  per- 
sons of  inferior  education  to  carry  out  these 
methods  by  simple  imitation.  While  this  is 
a  serious  evil,  it  is  undoubtedly  the  key-note 


to  the  great  success  of  the  kiudergarten 
tbns  far.  Having  a  genniue  love  for  chil- 
dren as  a  foundation,  the  mere  imitator  can 
do  much  for  the  child  hy  following  closely 
the  prescribed  work  in  building,  weaving, 
sewing,  cutting,  etc.  It  is  by  this  practical 
advantage,  as  shown  in  the  hands  of  mothers 
and  nurses  and  teachers  of  infant  education 
that  the  kindergarten  has  won  its  way  so 
rapidly. 

At  the  same  time  the  careful  study  of  its 
philosophy  is  now  putting  it  upon  a  surer 
foundation,  and  Froebel  is  being  studied,  not 
only  as  the  "  old  fool "  who  could  amuse 
children,  but  as  a  philosopher  whose  ^'Educa- 
tion of  Man"  deals  with  universal  problems. 

The  very  details  of  the  system  seem  to 
prevent  some  students  from  seeing  more 
than  the  balls,  cubes,  sticks,  wires,  and 
papers  in  use  from  day  to  day;  but  there 
are  other  deeper  questions  of  study  for  the 
kindergartner.  Among  these  is  the  culti- 
vation of  language. 

The  recent  report  in  Dr.  Hall's  Pedagogical 
Seminary*  bears  testimony  to  the  superior 
use  of  language  by  kindergarten  children. 

Out  of  seventy -five  selected  words,  the 

*  Pedngof]1cal  Seminary,  No.  '2. 


93 


children  from  kiudergartens,  comxiared  with 
children  from  families,  sliowed  themselves 
more  familiar  with  all  but  fifteen  of  the 
seventy-five  chosen  words.  Tliis  record  is 
taken  from  the  Berlin  table.  In  another 
similar  rejiort  of  children  in  Boston  the 
percentage  of  ignorance  of  the  words  used 
as  a  test  was  greater  in  thirty-eight  out  of 
lift}'^  words  among  American  children  who 
had  not  attended  kindergartens. 

The  following  nn usual  words  I  have  gath- 
ered from  a  boy's  vocabulary  (now  six  years 
old)  who  has  attended  kindergarten  two 
years  :  natives,  complete,  frolicsome,  recQp- 
tion,  promoted,  certificate,  aritlimetic,  re- 
lapse, ideas,  attracted,  intelligent,  tint,  fear- 
ful condition,  contenting  fun,  patiently, 
extreme,  such  an  invalid,  dainty  pink, 
credit,  cylinder,  hexagon,  triangle,  rhomb, 
weaving,  slanting,  arranging,  pattern,  in  vent. 
These  words  are  not  all  directly  suggestive 
of  kindergarten  exercises,  butmauy  of  them 
are. 

The  child's  language  is  cultivated  in  the 
kindergarten  because  he  is  brought  into  re- 
lation with  new  objects  and  is  given  names 
for  these.  He  handles  them  again  and 
again,  and  is  gradually  led  to  describe  them, 
to  tell  what  they  can  do.     He  is  also  led  to 


94 


tell  where  one  part  is  in  relation  to  other 
parts. 

Thus  we  find  a  training  in  the  use  of 
noun,  adjective,  verb,  adverb,  and  preposi- 
tion. His  language  is  enriched,  also,  by 
means  of  the  stories  related  by  the  kinder- 
gartner,  and  by  the  verses  of  song  which  he 
memorizes. 

I  have  heard  a  child  quote  lines  from 
these  songs  while  at  play  in  the  home  or  in 
the  fields  to  express  his  thoughts,  and  not  for 
the  sake  of  quoting. 

For  example,  a  little  boy  of  four,  as  he 
ran  about,  the  summer  after  he  had  entered 
a  kindergarten,  would  suddenly  exclaim, 


Or, 


■  Buttercups  and  daisies, 
Oh,  the  pretty  flowers." 


"Open  your  eyes, 
My  pansies  sweet,' 


as  he  passed  a  bed  of  pansies. 

After  saying  '^  Twinkle,  twinkle,  little 
star,"  one  night,  he  asked,  "  Little  star,  did 
you  know  I  called  you  a  diamond?" 

When  he  wanted  to  call  some  one,  he  has 
said, 

"  Beckon  to  the  chickens  small, 
Come,  dear  chickens,  one  and  all," 

[Froebel's  Mother  Song] 


or  "  Help,  ueigbbors,  help."  This  couplet 
was  often  quoted  iu  the  most  pleasing  tone, 
and  Avith  a  most  gracious  manner.  It  was 
used  to  secure  help.  Another  time  he  said, 
"'Give/ said  the  little  stream  —  that's  the 
same  as  '  Help  me.' " 

In  speaking  of  a  dog,  he  said,  "  He  is  full 
of  glee,"  the  last  three  words  being  taken 
from  a  song. 

The  kindergarten  has  always  stood  for  the 
development  of  individuality  in  the  pupil. 

This  is  shown  by  the  small  number  of 
pupils  usually  allotted  to  one  teacher.  It  is 
shown  by  the  free  work  called  for  in  con- 
nection with  every  gift  and  occupation. 

The  children  work  in  unison  at  times,  and 
thus  learn  to  attend  to  a  leader's  voice,  to 
follow  dictation ;  but  soon  is  heard  the  word, 
"Children,  now  you  may  make  anything  you 
please."  Then  the  individual  bent  is  followed 
and  the  teacher's  time  has  come  to  studj'  her 
pupils,  and  thus  learn  to  treat  them  in  ac- 
cordance with  their  individual  tendencies. 

The  all — important  subject  of  "Individu- 
alism in  Education "  has  been  very  ably 
treated  recently  by  Nathaniel  A.  Shaler,  in 
the  Atlantic  Monthly* 

*  Atlantic  }[onthbj,  May,  ISOl. 


His  suggestions  in  relation  to  the  necessity 
of  sympathy  between  pnpil  and  teacher,  in 
order  to  develop  the  individnal  tendencies 
of  the  child,  are  well  carried  out  in  the  kin- 
dergarten. 

He  says,  "  If  we  compare  the  intellectual 
movements  of  a  child  when  he  is  with  those 
whom  he  regards  with  affection,  and  when 
he  is  in  contact  with  strangers,  we  see  the 
nature  of  this  difference  in  action  of  the 
infantile  mind." 

He  closes  with  these  words,  "There  are 
doubtless  many  ways  in  which  men  may 
make  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  of 
their  dwelling-places,  but  the  simplest  of  all 
ways  is  through  a  fond  discerning  and  in- 
dividual care  of  each  child." 

Such  care  is  at  least  the  aim  of  the  true 
kindergartuer. 


THE    PHILOSOPHY   OF  THE    KINDER- 
GARTEN. 

BY  ANGELINE   BROOKS. 

Froebel,  the  founder  of  the  kindergcar- 
ten,  announced  as  the  basis  of  his  system 
an  educational  law  which  he  called  the  law 
of  unity.  The  first  chapter  of  his  Educa- 
tion of  Man  entitled  "Groundwork  of  the 
Whole,"  opens  with  these  words :  "  lu  all 
things  there  lives  and  reigus  an  eternal 
law.  .  .  .  This  all-controlling  law  is  necessa- 
rily based  on  all-pervading,  energetic,  giv- 
ing, self-conscious,  and  hence  eternal,  Uuity. 
..  .This  Unity  is  God.  All  things  have 
come  from  the  Divine  Uuity,  from  God,  and 
have  their  origin  in  the  Divine  Unity,  in 
God  alone.  God  is  the  sole  Source  of  all 
things.  In  all  things  there  lives  and  reigus 
the  Divine  Unity,  God." 

Froebel  declared  that  it  was  the  applica- 
tion of  this  eternal  law,  here  traced  to  its 
source,  Avhich  gave  him  the  right  to  call  his 
method  a  system.    He  spoke  of  it  under  dif- 


ferent  terms,  as  the  law  of  the  connection  of 
opposites,  the  \a,w  of  development,  the  law 
of  balance,  the  law  of  contrasts  and  their 
connections,  as  well  as  the  law  of  unity,  and 
declared  that  the  whole  meaning  of  his  edu- 
cational scheme  rested  upon  this  law  alone. 
Other  great  minds  have  recognized  the  op- 
eration of  the  same  law,  and  it  is  towards 
the  consideration  of  the  underlying  unity 
of  all  things  that  all  modern  thought  tends, 
whether  in  the  realm  of  religion,  of  science, 
or  of  philosophy.  It  is  seen  that  all  things 
are  from  God,  that  all  things  have  rela- 
tion to  man,  and  that  therefore  aJl  must 
have  relation  to  one  another.  Emerson  gives 
expression  to  the  satisfaction  which  the  hu- 
man mind  experiences  in  the  contemplation 
of  this  truth  when  he  says,  "The  day  of 
days,  the  great  day  of  the  feast  of  life,  is  that 
in  which  the  inward  eye  opens  to  the  unity 
of  things." 

An  extended  reference  to  the  law  of  unity 
in  its  universal  application  is  not  pertinent 
to  the  purpose  of  this  paper,  but  it  is  hoped 
that  a  correct  apprehension  of  the  idea  in- 
volved in  the  term  in  its  application  to  edu- 
cation may  be  gained  by  a  brief  considera- 
tion of  the  underlying  principles  of  Froebel's 
philosophy. 


99 


The  term  education,  as  Froebel  uses  it, 
contains  the  central  idea  of  his  system ;  for, 
recognizing  "the  identity  of  the  cosmic  laws 
with  the  laws- of  our  mind,"  and  seeing  that 
the  operations  of  nature  are  always  in  order- 
ly  evolutions,  he  defines  education  to  be  a 
process  of  development.  This  thought  is 
contained  in  the  word  kindergarten  (child- 
garden),  for,  as  the  wise  gardener  seeks  to 
giv'e  each  phmt  the  best  conditions  for  un- 
folding the  divine  thought  which  it  contains, 
so  the  kindergarten  demands  for  each  hu- 
man being,  created  for  freedom  in  the  image 
o"f  God,  the  opportunity  to  develop  his  in- 
born possibilities,  spontaneously  and  freely, 
in  accordance  with  the  eternal  law.  The 
limiting,  repressing,  dwarfing  methods  of 
mere  instruction,  which  prescribe  for  all 
alike,  and  which  regard  the  human  mind  as 
merely  a  receptacle  to  be  filled,  have  no 
place  in  the  new  education.  Admitting  that 
at  present  the  schools  aie  far  from  making 
vital,  ill  actual  practice,  the  developing 
method,  it  is  encouraging  and  inspiring  to 
note  that  the  tendency  of  the  most  advanced 
educational  thought  is  in  this  direction. 

"The  object  of  education,"  says  Froebel, 
"  is  the  realization  of  a  faithful,  pure,  invio- 
late, and  hence  holy  life."     Enlarging  upon 


100 


this  idea,  he  says  :  *'  Educatiou  should  lead 
and  guide  uiau  to  a  clearness  couceiuiug 
himself  and  in  himself,  to  peace  with  nat- 
ure, and  to  unity  with  God;  hence  it  should 
lift  him  to  a  knowledge  of  himself  and  of 
mankind,  to  a  knowledge  of  God  and  of  nat- 
ure, and  to  the  pure  and  holy  life  to  which 
such  knowledge  leads."  How  far  present 
educational  methods  are  from  attaining  the 
results  required  by  this  standard  our  crimi- 
nal records,  our  juvenile  asylums,  our  State 
prisons,  and  the  general  disorders  of  society 
testify.  Such  results  can  be  reached  only 
through  that  uni  Meat  ion  of  life,  everywhere 
spoken  of  in  Froebel's  writings,  which  in- 
volve all  man's  relationships — to  God,  to 
nature,  and  to  humanity — and  which  neces- 
sitates the  education  of  the  whole  human 
being — his  head,  his  heart,  and  his  hand — 
in  uninterrupted  continuity  of  development 
from  the  earliest  infancy. 

Tlie  child  is  born  to  three  relationships — 
to  nature,  to  God,  and  to  his  fellow-man — • 
each  of  which  involves  necessities,  duties, 
and  the  possibilities  of  failure.  He  begins 
life  at  the  bottom — at  first  has  no  possession 
of  his  bodily  faculties,  nor  of  his  intellectual 
and  spiritual  powers.  He  needs  education 
in  each  of  these  directions. 


101 


Froebel  liad  in  miud  this  comprehensive 
idea  of  the  work  to  be  done  when  he  set  him- 
self to  develop  a  theory  of  education.     The 
kindergarten  he  intended  to  be  a  practical 
school,  in  which  the  child  shonld  get  physi- 
cal, moral,  and  spiritual  culture.    In  the  true 
kindergarten  this  threefold  object  is  never 
lost  sight  of,  for  to  neglect  any  side  of  it  is 
to  do  less  than  Froebel's  theory  requires.    He 
intended  the  kindergarten  to  be  an  epitome 
of  life,  in  which  the  great  world  of  grown- 
up people  shonld  be  represented  in  minia-'^ 
tnre.     ^*  We  learn  by  doing"  was  a  favorife  I 
motto  o7  his,  and,  true  to  his  thought,  he  de-  | 
veloped  a  system  through  which  the  fnnda- ' 
mental    principles    of  morality    should   be 
learned  by  actual  experience.     As  a  basis  for 
this  moral  and  spiritual  culture,  the  physical 
well-being  of  the  child  is  the  object  of  con- 
stant attention. 

All  the  discords  of  society  arise  from  man's 
ignorance  of  the  way  to  adapt  himself  in 
just  relations  to  his  fellow-man,  or,  if  not 
from  his  ignorance,  from  his  unwillingness 
to  do  so.  To  train  the  child  to  the  practice 
of  honor  and  justice  with  children  of  his 
own  age  is  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  just 
and  honorable  character.  To  develop  in  him 
love  for  others  and  a  willingness  to  sacrifice 


102 


himself  for  them  within  proper  limits,  is  the 
chief  object  of  the  true  kiudergartuer. 

The  kiudergarteu  takes  the  child  from  the 
nursery  aud  introduces  him  into  a  community 
of  his  equals,  in  which  the  usual  collisions  of 
child  life  are  constantly  occurring,  in  the 
adjustment  of  which  he  gets  experience  that 
has  much  to  do  with  the  formation  of  char- 
acter. 

He  learns  to  respect  the  rights  of  others, 
and  to  be  himself  self-asserting  when  need 
requires.  He  is  treated  justly  and  tenderly, 
and  learns  to  treat  in  the  same  way  those 
younger  or  weaker  than  himself. 

That  the  child's  relations  with  his  fellows 
are  important,  and  that  there  is  need  of 
guiding  him  in  those  relations,  are  ideas  not 
readily  received  by  those  who  have  thought 
of  the  intellect  alone  as  requiring  culture,  at 
least  in  the  schools.  The  prevailing  idea 
has  been  and  still  is  that  the  training  of 
the  intellect  is  the  chief  work  of  education, 
This  is  a  serious  mistake,  for  in  moral  and 
spiritual  culture  the  will  is  especially  in- 
volved, and  to  strengthen  the  desire  of  right- 
willing  is  at  least  as  important  as  to  increase 
the  capacity  to  know.  The  kiudergartuer 
believes  that  to  lead  the  child  to  love  that 
which  is  good  and  true  is  more  iniportant  than 


103 


to  fill  his  mind  with  stores  of  knowledge,  for 
simply  to  know  the  right  is  not  enough ;  he 
alone  does  the  right  who  loves  to  do  it.  We 
are  sorry  if  our  neighbor  is  an  ignorant  man, 
we  are  still  more  sorry  if  he  is  an  unamiable 
man. 

At  the  outset  the  kiudergavtner  is  con- 
fronted by  the  necessity  of  studying  deeply 
the  two  great  forces  which  lie  back  of  every 
act  of  the  child's  life.  He  who  would  man- 
age a  steam-engine  must  know  what  the 
motive  power  is  and  how  to  control  it. 

Froebel,  having  set  for  himself  so  compre- 
hensive a  task  in  education,  saw  that  he 
must  begin  with  the  youngest  children,  with 
the  babies,  and  before  we  can  witness  the 
fullest  illustration  of  the  value  of  his  system, 
mothers  and  nurses  must  adopt  its  methods 
and  be  imbued  with  its  spirit.  Helpless  in- 
fancy, without  the  power  of  resistance  to 
either  physical  or  spiritual  evils,  must  be 
guarded  tenderly,  lest  from  wounds  thus 
early  received  there  remain  life-long  scars, 
and  the  seed-sowing  from  which  shall  siDring 
the  fruitage  of  future  life  must  be  done  by 
judicious  hands. 

The  first  seven  years  of  the  child's  life 
Froebel  saw  to  be  the  most  important  for  pur- 
poses  of  education ',  for,  as  he  said,  during 


104 


that  time  tendeucies  are  given  and  the  germs 
of  character  are  set.  No  impressions  stop 
with  the  body  :  all  enter  the  sonl,  A  body 
uuteuauted  by  a  soul  receiv^es  no  impres- 
sions. 

To  direct  the  tendencies  of  mind  and  heart, 
to  prepare  the  mind  to  love  trnth  and  good- 
ness, to  lay  broad  and  deep  the  foundations 
on  which  the  future  educator  may  build  in 
beauty  and  strength — this  is  the  work  of 
the  mother  and  the  kindergartuer.  The 
wisest  parents  are  those  who  are  quickest  to 
see  the  tendencies  of  their  children  for  good 
or  for  evil,  and  who  are  most  judicious  in 
using  stimulus  or  preventive,  as  the  case 
may  require. 

The  kindergarten  is  the  only  institution 
except  the  family  that  seeks  to  educate 
children  under  school  age  ;  but  the  necessity 
of  such  early  training  in  loving  and  doing 
the  right  is  plainly  shown  by  the  fact  that 
many  children  enter  school  with  evil  tenden- 
cies strongly  developed  and  evil  habits  firm- 
ly fixed.  There  is  a  work,  both  of  prevention 
and  of  up-building,  which  may  be  done  be- 
fore school  age,  and  the  omission  of  which  at 
that  time  can  never  be  made  up.  It  is  un- 
wise to  overlook  the  earliest  seed-time.  In 
these  days,  when  so  much  is  to  be  feared 


105 


from  the  ignorance  and  unbridled  passions  of 
the  loiivest  classes  of  society,  the  kiudergar- 
ten  offers  itself  as  one  most  jioteut  prevent- 
ive of  the  dreaded  evils,  and  this  chiefly 
because  it,  as  no  other  means  does,  begins 
with  the  babies. 

On  one  occasion  Froebel  thus  expressed 
himself  in  regard  to  the  importance  of  the 
earliest  education : 

"Every  age  of  life  has  its  own  peculiar 
claims  and  needs  in  resiiect  to  nurture  and 
educational  assistance,  appropriate  to  it 
alone ;  what  is  lost  to  the  nursling  cannot  be 
made  good  in  later  childhood,  and  so  on. 
The  child,  and  afterwards  the  youth,  have 
other  needs  and  make  other  demands  than 
tlie  nursling,  which  must  be  met  at  their 
proper  ages — not  earlier,  not  later.  Losses 
which  have  taken  place  in  the  first  stage  of 
life,  in  which  the  heart-leaves — the  germ- 
leaves  of  the  whole  being — unfold,  are  never 
made  up.  If  I  pierce  the  young  leaf  of  the 
shoot  of  a  plant  with  the  finest  needle,  the 
prick  forms  a  knot  which  grows  with  the 
leaf,  becomes  harder  and  harder,  and  prcr 
vents  it  from  obtaining  its  perfectly  com- 
plete form.  Something  similar  takes  place 
after  wounds  which  touch  the  tender  germ 
of  the   human    soul   and  injure  the  heart- 


106 


leaves  of  its  being."  At  this  i)oiut,  turning 
to  liis  pupils  who  were  present,  he  said, 
"  Therefore,  you  must  keep  holy  the  being 
of  the  child ;  protect  it  from  every  rough 
and  rude  impression,  from  everj^  touch  of  the 
vulgar  A  gesture,  a  look,  a  sound,  is  often 
sufficient  to  inflict  such  wounds.  The  child's 
soul  is  more  tender  and  vulnerable  than  the 
finest  or  tenderest  plant.  It  would  have 
been  far  different  with  humanity  if  every  in- 
dividual iu  it  had  been  protected  in  tliat  teu- 
derest  age  as  befitted  the  human  soul  wliich 
holds  within  itself  the  divine  spark. 

"  The  first  impressions  which  a  young 
child  receives  are  stronger  and  more  lasting 
thau  those  iu  later  life,  because  that  power 
of  resistance  is  then  wanting  which  its  later 
consciousness  brings.  As  the  thriving  of 
the  child's  body  dei^ends  iu  a  great  measure 
upou  its  breathing  pure  air,  so  the  purit}^ 
and  morality  of  the  soul  depeud  partly  on 
the  impressions  which  the  nursling  and  child 
receive.  The  careful  nursing  of  the  inuer 
spiritual  life  must  begin  much  earlier  thau 
the  expression  of  it  is  possible,  before  its 
tender  susceptibility  is  disturbed  by  outward 
influences.  This  tender  susceptibility  re- 
quires a  tender  handling,  or  it  is  iu  a  certain 
sense  choked,  as  if  I  should  cover  the  grow- 


107 


iug  roots  of  tbis  little  plaut  I  have  here  with 
sand.  No  development  can  be  forced  in  nat- 
ure, still  less  in  tbe  linman  mind.  With 
rigbt  care  everything  blossoms  in  its  own 
time.  If  I  forcibly  tear  open  this  poppy- 
bud,  its  fine  folded  leaves  may  be  seen,  but 
the  flower  will  not  unfold  ;  it  withers  with- 
in. In  the  same  manner  many  a  child's  soul, 
artificially  and  violently  broken  into,  will 
wither  within,  be  despoiled,  and  at  least  will 
not  bear  the  fruit  it  was  destined  to  bring 
forth. 

"  Now,  what  can  we  do  for  the  unfolding 
of  these  heart-leaves  of  life,  which  contain 
the  whole  future  man,  with  all  its  future 
tendencies  ?  We  must_1fTT>ph  _tlu»— ^4^44^1- 
from  its  birth  into  the_jtoe.Aud^all^sid^43 se 
of  its-^iiisjeis,— That  is  just  the  aim  of  these 
plays  and  occupations  w  hich  exercise  the  yet 
unseen  powers  of  the  nursling  on  every  side. 
But  we  must  not,  as  is  often  erroneously 
done,  take  care  only  of  the  bodily  powers 
by  exercising  merely  the  senses  and  limbs, 
and  then  later,  when  the  school  period  ar- 
rives, make  the  intellectual  powers  alone  act ; 
but  steadily,  and  during  the  whole  period  of 
childhood,  body  and  mind  should  be  exer- 
cised and  cultivated  together.  The  mind 
develops  itself  in  and  with  the  organs  that 


108 


are  iiiseparaljly  connected  with  it  in  the 
earthly  life.  Child's  play  strengthens  the 
powers  both  of  the  soul  and  of  the  body,  i^ro- 
vided  we  know  how  to  make  the  first  self- 
occupation  of  a  child  a  freely  active,  that  is, 
a  creative  or  a  productive  one." 

Froebel  may  be  called  the  "discoverer  of 
childhood,"  because  he  has  had  the  philo- 
sophic insight  to  trace  back  to  their  bogiu- 
iiings  in  infiiucy,  the  germ-peiiod  of  life,  all 
the  universal  traits  of  the  fully  developed 
man.  Love  of  home,  love  of  country,  desire 
for  possession,  all  the  domestic,  social,  and 
religious  instincts  which  enter  into  the  char- 
acter of  raaukiiid  have,  according  to  him, 
their  root  iu  some  manifestation  of  early 
childhood,  and  he  declared  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  those  who  have  the  responsibility  of 
the  education  of  children  to  know  the  mean- 
ing of  their  first  utterances,  in  which  are 
sejen  the  germs  of  the  mature  character,  and 
to  nourish  and  direct  them  as  such. 

A  striking  illustration  of  this  thought  of 
Froebel's  is  found  in  the  use  of  figurative  lan- 
guage. We  speak  of  warm  hearts,  glowing 
words,  dark  deeds,  lofty  purposes,  deep  in- 
sight, near  friends,  wounded  hearts,  cutting 
sarcasms,  bitter  reproaches,  stinging  re- 
proofs;  in  fact,  it  is  impossible  to  express 


109 


intellectual  and  spiritual  truth  except  by 
meaus  of  words  derived  from  the  qualities  of 
things. 

Emerson  says,  "  What  men  value  as  sub- 
stance has  a  greater  value  as  symbol.  The 
whole  world  is  thoroughly  antliropomor- 
phized,  as  though  it  had  passed  through  the 
mind  of  man  and  taken  his  mould  and  form  ; 
the  huge  heavens  and  earth  are  but  a  web 
drawn  around  us  j  the  light,  skies,  and 
mountains  are  but  the  painted  vicissitudes 
of  the  soul." 

The  thought  which  Froebel  everywhere 
expresses  is  that  things  of  the  spiritual 
world  are  related  to  things  of  the  natural 
world  b}^  correspondence,  and  that  things  of 
the  natural  world  are  related  to  one  another 
by  analogy.  Here  we  find  the  meaning  of 
his  often  repeated  words,  unity  of  life.  To 
him  they  were  w^ords  full  of  important  truth  ; 
indeed,  they  furnished  the  key  to  his  whole 
system. 

To  develop  a  system  of  education  which 
should  be  in  accordance  w  ith  nature  had 
made  a  thorough  study  of  nature  necessary, 
and  with  childlike  docility  Froebel  had  set 
himself  to  the  task.  As  a  result  of  his  stud- 
ies in  all  departments  of  science  he  came  to 
see  an  underlying  unity  in  all  tbe  works  of 


110 


great  kingdoms  of  nature  is  a  whole,  that 
each  is  related  to  the  others,  and  that  all 
find  their  coDsiinmiatiou  in  man.  In  reaching 
this  conclusion  Froebel  was  but  anticipating 
the  work  of  modern  scientists,  for  it  is  tow- 
ards the  discovery  of  underlying  unity  that 
their  vast  researches  tend.  An  English 
writer  s^ieaks  of  the  "  grand  consanguinity 
of  all  knowledge  arising  from  the  unity  of 
nature,"  and  the  same  writer  says,  "  No  por- 
tion of  nature  is  truly  intelligible  till  its 
analogies  with  the  other  portions  are  inves- 
tigated and  applied."  In  another  place  he 
says,  "  The  beginning  of  x)liilosophy  is  the 
study  of  differences;  but  w^e  climb  to  that 
beautiful  Olympus  where  simple  and  essen- 
tial truths  reside,  the  heaven  of  all  the  other 
spheres  of  knowledge,  by  comparing  and  de- 
ducing resemblances." 

The  three  kingdoms  of  nature  stand  in 
close  relation  to  one  another.  Broadl}^  it 
ma}^  be  said  that  plants  feed  upon  minerals, 
and  animals  feed  upon  plants.  Then,  again, 
each  kingdom  prefigures  the  one  above  it. 
The  mineral  kingdom  in  some  of  its  beauti- 
ful crystalline  forms  foretells  the  vegetable 
world.  Silver  and  copper^  for  instance,  in 
crystallizing  often  assume  shai)es  striking- 


]y  suggestive  of  vegetable  forms,  and  the 
frost-crystals  of  the  window-paue  aud  of  the 
pavement  are  sometimes  almost  perfect  re- 
productious  of  certain  mosses  and  ferns. 
Crystalline  forms  are  also  seen  in  the  cell  of 
the  honey-bee  and  in  the  hexagonal  facets 
of  the  eyes  of  insects,  and  in  innumerable 
other  instances  the  connection  between  the 
different  kingdoms  of  nature  is  seen. 

So  close  is  the  analogy  between  the  vege- 
table and  animal  kingdoms  that,  taken 
together,  they  may  be  said  to  form  a  whole. 
Tlie  respiratory  and  circulatory  systems  and 
the  digestive  organs  of  the  human  body 
have  their  analogues  in  plants.  The  mem- 
bers of  both  kingdoms  have  their  allotted 
periods  of  growth  and  of  maturity,  and  both 
are  subject  to  the  law  of  death  and  decay. 

The  underlying  unity  of  all  plant  life  is 
now  fully  recognized,  and  all  the  marvellous 
varieties  of  vegetable  growths  are  reduced 
to  root,  stem,  and  leaves.  Indeed,  the  leaf 
itself  may  be  taken  as  the  plant  unit,  to 
which  root  and  stem  are  but  accessaries. 
Goethe  first  suggested  this  theory,  and 
science  now  fully  confirms  it. 

The  animal  kingdom,  like  the  vegetable, 
is  a  grand  whole,  for  between  the  most  mi- 
croscopic animalcule  aud  the  largest  quad- 


112 


rnped  there  is  no  essential  ditfereuce  as  to 
structure  aud  modes  of  life. 

It  is  because  man  is  thus  related  to  nature 
that  lie  can  understand  nature  and  can  be 
educated  tbrotigb  nature  ;  indeed,  tbe  study 
of  tbe  tbree  kingdoms  of  nature  is  tbe  best 
preparation  tbat  man  can  make  for  tbe  un- 
derstanding of  bis  own  life,  since  in  nature 
man  sees  himself  reflected  as  in  a  mirror. 

In  developing  bis  educational  system, 
Froebel  at  every  step  of  tbe  way  looked  to 
nature  for  guidance.  In  speaking  of  direct- 
ing the  child  in  bis  attempts  at  creative  ac- 
tivity, be  says,  "  Where  shall  we  take  tbe 
rule,  if  not  from  nature  f  We  mortals  can 
only  imitate  what  the  dear  God  has  created  : 
therefore  we  must  make  use  of  the  same  Jaw 
according  to  n-hich  He  creates.  With  this 
law  I  give  children  a  guide  for  creating,  and, 
because  it  is  the  law  according  to  which 
they,  as  creatures  of  God,  have  themselves 
been  created,  they  can  easily  appl^^  it.  It  is 
born  with  them,  and  it  also  guides  the  ani- 
mal instinct  in  its  activity." 

Illustrations  of  the  operation  of  the  law 
of  unitij,  obvious  to  the  most  careless  observ- 
er, abound  everywhere,  while  tbe  searcher 
after  nature's  secrets  finds  the  same  law 
working  in  all  her  most  bidden  processes. 


113 


It  is  tbe  balancing  of  centrifngal  and  cen- 
tripetal forces  that  keeps  tbe  lieaveuly  bodies 
in  tbeir  unvarying  patbs;  it  is  tbe  united 
action  of  tbe  beat  and  ligbt  of  tbe  sun  tbat 
gives  life  and  fertility  to  tbe  eartb ;  it  is  by 
tbe  balancing  of  waste  and  repair  tbrougb 
tbe  wonder-working  cbemistry  of  nature  tbat 
tbe  ever-returning  wants  of  tbe  vegetable 
and  animal  world  are  supplied,  and  tbe  face 
of  the  eartb  renewed  continually.  Tbe  dis- 
integration of  all  material  tbings  would  re- 
sult sbould  tbe  action  of  the  law  of  unity  be 
for  one  moment  suspended. 

Tbe  law  of  unity  underlies  all  formation 
in  tbe  works  of  nature  and  all  construction 
in  tbe  works  of  man.  Tbe  bird  builds  its 
nest  in  obedience  to  it,  bringing  together 
scattered  sticks  and  straws  and  weaving  tbem 
into  a  wbole,  and  man  makes  a  dwelling  for 
bimself  by  bringing  together  and  subjecting 
to  one  unifying  thought  and  purpose,  through 
tbe  skilled  labor  of  unnumbered  bands,  the 
products  of  the  quarry,  the  mine,  and  the 
forest.  Tbe  arch  illustrates  tbe  law  we  are 
considering.  It  derives  its  unity  from  tbe 
key-stone,  which  enters  as  a  wedge  and  con- 
nects tbe  opposite  parts.  Tbe  truss  of  ar- 
chitecture is  another  illustration  of  the  same 
law,  its  use,  like  that  of  tbe  key-stone,  being 


based  upon  the  fact  that  "  action  and  reac- 
tion in  opposite  directions  are  equal." 

All  the  industries  and  arts  are  only  appli- 
cations o^  the  law  of' unity.  The  farmer  by 
his  activities  puts  in  operation  the  chain  of 
causes  that  must  intervene  between  the  seed 
and  the  harvest.  The  manufacturer  and 
the  merchant  bridge  the  gap  between  the 
producer  and  the  consumer,  and  ships  and 
railroads,  telegraphs  and  telephones,  unite 
places  and  peoples  that  wonld  otherwise  be 
separated.  Terrible  famines  have  recently 
devastated  some  parts  of  India  because  there 
\^■a8  no  available  means  by  which  food  from 
the  overflowing  granaries  of  the  Western 
World  could  be  carried  to  the  starving  mill- 
ions of  the  East.  Nothing  is  of  any  value 
so  long  as  it  exists  in  isolation,  and  nothing 
is  fully  understood  until  its  relations  to  all 
other  things  are  seen. 

To  api^ly  in  education  the  law  of  unity  had 
been  Froebel's  thought  long  before  he  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  the  kindergaiten.  In 
The  Education  of  Man,  written  nearly  ten 
years  before  the  opening  of  the  first  kinder- 
garten, it  is  constantly  referred  to  as  the  one 
guiding  law  in  education.  In  one  place  be 
says,  "Nothing  whatever  is  truly  known 
unless  it  is  compared  with  the  oj^posite  of 


its  kind,  and  the  points  of  agreement  and 
resemblance  detected;  and  knowledge  is 
complete  in  proportion  to  the  thoroughness 
of  the  process  of  comparison  and  discovery." 
Again  he  says,  "  Never  forget  this  :  It  is  not 
by  teaching  and  imparting  a  mere  variety 
and  multitude  of  facts  that  a  school  becomes 
a  school  (iu  the  true  sense),  but  only  by  em- 
pliasizing  the  Viviiui  unity  that  is  in  all  thiuf/s." 
Froebel  thus  states  his  idea  of  vrhat  the 
school  should  be:  "School  is  the  effort  to 
acquaint  the  ^lupil  with  the  true  nature  and 
inner  life  of  things,  and  to  bring  him  to  a 
consciousness  of  his  own  inner  life  and  nat- 
ure; to  acquaint  him  with  the  real  relation 
of  things  to  each  other,  and  also  to  mankind, 
to  the  pupil  himself,  and  to  the  living  ground 
and  self-conscious  unity  of  all  things,  i.e., 
God;  so  that  these  relations  maybe  a  living- 
reality  to  his  consciousness.  The  aim  of 
instruction  is  to  give  the  pupil  an  insight 
into  the  unity  of  all  thinya,  how  they  live, 
move,  and  have  their  being  iu  God,  for  the 
purpose  of  applying  this  insight  to  practical 
life  and  work;  the  method  and  means  to 
this  end  is  instruction,  the  very  process  of 
teaching."  He  defines  the  school-master  as 
"  one  who  is  iu  a  position  to  demonstrate 
the  unity  of  fhinys." 


That  the  way  pointed  out  by  Froehel  is 
the  natural  and,  tlieiefore,  the  right  yvay  of 
presenting  subjects,  is  shown  by  the  delight 
with  whicli  children  work  in  accordance 
with  it.  Related  opposites  being  given, 
the  child  will  look  with  the  greatest  inter- 
est for  the  intervening  links  that  connect 
thera.  He  will  go  at  once,  from  things  that 
he  sees  and  handles,  to  God,  the  Cause  of  all, 
find  then  will  ask  with  eagerness  to  be 
shown  by  what  means  the  Cause  has  pro- 
duced the  effect. 

Froebel  took  a  comprehensive  view  of  this 
snbject  when  he  said,  "  What  other  objects  of 
onr  knowledge  exist  but  God,  man,  nature  ? 
What  other  task  can  our  intellect  have  than 
to  find  the  relation  between  these  three  sole- 
existing  objects  ?" 

God,  the  .Self-existing,  expresses  Himself 
in  unconscious  nature.  Man  stands  between 
God  and  nature.  For  man  nature  exists, 
and  through  the  knowledge  and  use  of  nat- 
ure man  is  led  up  to  God ;  for,  as  Froebel  said, 
"  Creation  is  the  embodied  thought  of  God." 

The  Baroness  Marenholz  says,  "By-and- 
by  Froebel's  educational  law  will  be  accepted 
as  distinctly  and  independently  as  Newton's 
law  of  gravitation."  When  that  time  comes, 
things  and  events  will  be  i)i'esented  to  the 


117 


pupil  in  their  natural  connections  j  history 
will  not  he  taught  as  a  mere  patchwork  of 
hattle-scenes,  and  scientific  study  will  he 
something  more  than  the  collectiug  of  dis- 
couDected  facts. 

Fioehers  deep  thought  of  educationwas 
tTiat  it  should  be  the  meaus  of  showing  to 
each  iudividual  his  own  possibilities;^  To 
accomplish  this  there  must  he  freedom  of 
activity;  for  by  no  other  means  can  indi- 
viduality be  developed.  No  external  mould- 
ing of  the  mind  after  a  given  pattern  will 
do:  that  is  the  Chinese  idea  of  education. 
Froebel  more  than  any  other  educator  has 
insisted  upon  this  necessity  of  spontaueous- 
activity  as_a_means  of  jdevelo^meut,  and  he 
has  devised  a  system  that  has  made  it  pos- 
sible. As  a  first  step  towards  securing  this 
freedom  of  activity,  he  would  rouse  in  the 
child  a  desire  to  know ;  for  as  we  may  gauge 
the  health  of  the  body  by  the  keenness  of 
the  appetite  for  food,  so  the  healthy  mind 
may  be  known  by  that  "  curiositj^  which  is 
the  a^ipetite  of  the  nnderstanding."  The 
constant  effort  of  the  kiudergartuer  is  to 
induce  children  to  use  their  eyes  and  ears, 
and  to  lead  them  to  seek  for  the  causes  that 
'  lie  back  of  the  phenomena  which  come 
within  their  observation.     In   orderly  de- 


118 


velopnieiit  the  next  step  will  be  the  desire 
to  give  expression  to  the  ideas  that  have 
been  received.  Use  is  the  law  of  increase  in 
intellectual  as  it  is  in  physical  strength,  and 
Froebel's  system  is  shown  to  bo  in  accord- 
ance with  nature  in  the  fact  that  (/ivhig  as 
well  as  receiving,  doing  as  well  as  knowing, 
are  constantly  insisted  upon.  If  sponta- 
neous activity  is  not  the  result  of  the  child's 
training,  there  is  somewhere  a  fatal  defect. 
If  the  child  of  the  kindergarten,  treated  ten- 
derly and  lovingly,  justly  and  with  respect, 
does  not  learn  to  show  to  his  fellows  tender- 
ness and  love,  justice  and  respect — if,  having 
had  an  opportunity  through  the  use  of  the 
(llfis  to  gain  clear  ideas  of  external  things, 
he  never  becomes  inventive  in  the  use  of  the 
occupation-materials,  and  his  work  is  always 
only  that  which  he  is  told  to  do — the  great 
object  of  his  training  has  not  been  accom- 
plished, for  "  the  end  and  aim  of  the  kinder- 
garten is  harmonious  development  leading 
to  spontaneous  activitj'." 

The  test  of  the  true  kindergarten  is  al- 
ways the  joyous  spontaneity  of  the  children 
in  their  games  and  their  inventiveness  in 
the  use  of  the  gifts  and  the  occupations. 

Froebel  said,  "  Only  that  knowledge  fur- 
thers the  ripening  of  the  mind  which  mounts 


up  through  its  own  activity  and  effort  from 
the  perception  and  conteinplation  of  external 
ohjects  to  the  thoughts  or  the  conceptions  that 
dwell  in  things." 

All  the  activity  of  the  kiudergarten  is 
easily  roused,  because  ev^erythiug  is  done  in 
accordance  with  the  child's  natural  activity 
— that  is,  in  the  play -spirit.  It  is  not 
merely  in  the  games  of  the  kindergarten 
that  the  children  play.  The  games  are  the 
plays,  but  the  children  play  in  all  they  do. 
If  they  march,  they  are  phijing  soldiers; 
if  they  build  with  the  gifts,  they  are  playing 
at  building;  if  they  work  at  weaving,  or 
sewing,  or  paper-cutting,  they  are  playing 
that  they  are  working.  There  are  no  tasks 
in  the  kiudergarten.  Froebel  saw  in  the 
chihl's  play  the  thought  of  God  for  him  as 
to  the  means  of  development  suited  to  this 
stage  of  his  growth. 

In  that  chapter  of  The  Education  of  Man 
in  which  he  treats  of  man  in  the  period 
of  his  earliest  childhood,  he  says,  "Play  is 
the  highest  stage  of  a  child's  development, 
of  man's  development  at  that  period ;  for  it 
is  the  spontaneous  utterance  of  the  inner 
life,  flowing  from  an  inner  necessity  and 
impulse.  Play  is  the  purest  and  most  spir- 
itual product  of  niau's  activity  at  this  x^eriod. 


aud  is  at  once  the  type  and  image  of  human 
life  in  its  entire  range,  of  the  secret  life  that 
flows  through  mankind  and  nature  ;  hence 
it  gives  birlh  to  joy,  freedom,  contentment, 
tranquillity,  and  peace  with  the  world.  In 
it  are  the  springs  of  all  good  ;  the  child  that 
plays  sturdily  and  with  quiet  energy,  hold- 
ing out  to  the  point  of  bodily  fatigne,  will 
surely  become  a  sturdy,  quiet,  and  steadfast 
man,  promoting  with  self-sacritice  his  own 
and  others'  welfare.  Is  not  the  playing 
child  the  most  beautiful  sight  at  this  period 
of  life? — the  child  fully  absorbed  in  his 
play — falling  asleep  while  thus  absorbed? 

"  Play,  as  above  indicated,  is  at  this  period 
no  mere  sport,  it  is  deeply  serious  and  signif- 
icant. Cherish  aud  nourish  it,  you  who  are 
mothers  ;  protect  aud  guard  it,  you  fathers. 
The  penetrating  eye  of  one  thoroughly  ac- 
quainted with  human  nature  plainly  dis- 
cerns in  the  spontaneously  chosen  play  of 
the  child  his  future  inner  history.  The 
plays  of  this  j)eriod  are  the  germs  of  the  en- 
tire future  life,  for  in  them  tlie  whole  nature 
of  the  child  is  expanding,  and  showing  his 
finest  traits,  his  inmost  soul.  In  this  period 
lie  the  springs  of  the  entire  course  of  human 
life,  and  upon  the  proper  conduct  of  life  now 
will  it  dei)end  whether  the  future  is  to  be 


or  agitated,  industrious  or  idle,  gloomy  aud 
morbid  or  bright  aud  productive,  obtuse  or 
keenly  receptive,  creative  or  destructive; 
whether  it  is  to  bring  concord  aud  peace  or 
discord  aud  war;  on  that,  too,  depend  like- 
wise, in  keeping  with  the  peculiar  natural 
constitution  of  the  child,  his  relations  to 
father  and  mother,  brothers  aud  sisters,  to 
the  community  aud  the  race,  to  nature  aud 
to  God." 

Children,  whether  iu  school  or  out  of  it, 
love  to  work  if  they  are  plaijbuj  that  they  are 
ivorling.  The  story  of  a  man  Avho  by  this 
means  cleared  a  piece  of  ground  of  stones 
illustrates  this.  Wishing  to  remove  the 
stones  which  were  thickly  strewn  all  over 
the  ground,  he  told  the  boys  of  the  neigh- 
borhood that  on  a  given  day  he  would  help 
them  build  a  stone  fort.  Delighted,  as  chil- 
dren always  are,  to  play  under  the  direction 
of  an  older  person,  they  came  eagerly,  with 
little  express- wagons  and  wheelbarrows, 
and  carried  all  the  stones  to  one  corner  of 
tlie  field,  where  they  were  skilfully  piled  up 
to  make  a  fort.  The  boys  had  a  day  of  fun, 
and  they  accomplished  for  their  friend  a 
piece  of  work  which  it  would  have  been 
cruelty  to  ask  them  to  do  iu  any  other  way. 


122 


Tho  practical  carrying  out  of  Froebel's 
theory  makes  the  coustaut  use  of  the  hands 
necessary.  Here  he  has  shown  himself  to  be 
in  harmony  with  nature's  plan,  for  children 
always  love  to  have  something  to  do.  In  a 
well-conducted  kindergarten  the  children 
are  never  listless ;  for  their  attention  is  al- 
ways held  by  connecting  all  instruction  with 
the  nse  of  the  hands.  They  are  not  bur- 
dened by  being  taught  dry  abstractions; 
they  *' learn  by  doing,"  and  the  hand,  man's 
distinguishing  implement  of  power,  is  made 
a  chief  means  of  education.  By  the  use  of  it 
the  inner  thought  and  i^urpose  find  outward 
expression,  and,  bj^  being  thus  expressed, 
reveal  the  child's  possibilities  to  himself. 
It  is  with  feelings  of  self-respect  and  a 
sense  of  dignity  and  importance  that  he 
looks  upon  the  work  of  his  own  hands.  He 
can  do  something  well,  and  he  feels  that  he 
has  earned  his  right  to  a  place  in  the  world. 
All  experience  shows  that  if  special  skill  in 
the  use  of  the  hands  is  desired,  the  muscles 
must  be  trained  in  early  childhood  ;  and  it 
is  partly  because  the  kindergarten  gives 
employment  to  the  tiny  hands  of  the  very 
little  children  that  its  industries  are  so 
valuable. 

In  all  reformatory  institutions  the  impor- 


tance  of  the  training  of  the  hand  as  a  means 
of  moral  cnlture  is  acknowledged.  Statistics 
show  that  penal  and  reformatory  institu- 
tions are  largely  filled  by  those  who  have 
no  special  aptitude  for  any  useful  work. 
Mr.  Dugdale,  in  his  book  upon  crime  and 
Xiauporism,  says  that  if  the  children  of  vice 
and  crime,  born  with  the  lowest  tendencies, 
could  be  from  their  earliest  childhood  trained 
in  Froebel's  methods,  these  tendencies  might 
be  to  a  great  extent  overcome.  This  state- 
ment is  easily  accepted  by  those  who  see 
the  delight  which  the  children  of  the  kin- 
dergarten take  in  their  employments,  and 
especially  by  those  who  see  how  the  dullest 
and  most  refractory  are  made  eager  and 
docile  when  given  work  to  do  suited  to  their 
tastes  and  capacities. 

The  activity  of  play  gives  the  freest  scope 
to  the  imagination,  and  one  very  important 
part  of  the  kindergartner's  work  is  to  guide 
aud  educate  this  "  kingly  faculty  of  the 
soul."  One  of  the  greatest  of  living  preachers 
says,  "To  fill  the  mind  with  beautifnl  im- 
ages is  the  best  mode  of  culture  for  the  very 
young.  Make  sure  of  the  imagination,  and 
you  secure  the  character."  The  kinder- 
gartner  recognizes  this  truth,  and  for  this 
reason  seeks  as  far  as  possible  to  surround 


124 


the  cliiklren  with  beautiful  ohjects,  and  at- 
tempts constantly  in  the  <;anies  and  songs, 
the  talks  and  stories,  aud  by  every  other 
))()ssible  means,  to  waken  snch  thoughts  and 
feelings  as  shall  elevate  and  refine.  It  is  in 
these  opportunities  for  seed-sowing  that  the 
true  kindergartner  finds  her  greatest  satis- 
faction. 

No  language  can  be  too  strong  to  express 
the  emphasis  which  Froebel  places  upon  the 
need  of  religious  education.  In  one  place 
he  says,  "All  education  which  is  not  found- 
ed upon  the  Cliristian  religion  is  one-sided, 
defective,  and  fruitless ;"  again,  he  says, 
"  The  object  and  end  of  all  education  is  the 
union  of  the  individual  soul  with  God." 
This  idea  is  pervasive  of  all  his  writings ;  it 
is  the  central  thought  of  the  whole. 

Recognizing  the  interdependence  of  diflter- 
ent  planes  of  spiritual  activity,  Froebel  sees 
social  education  to  be  essential  to  true  relig- 
ious culture.  In  fact,  he  traces  the  religious 
and  the  social  instinct  to  the  same  source, 
aud  finds  in  the  child's  love  of  companion- 
ship— in  his  desire  to  find  some  being  in 
loving  response  to  himself — the  germ  of  all 
religious  feeling.  A  guiding  thought  iu 
Froebel's  philosophy  is  the  idea  of  the  or- 
ganic relation  of  the  individual  to  the  race. 


125 


He  says:  '•' lu  tlie  development  of  the  iiidi- 
Tidnal  man  the  history  of  the  spiritual  de- 
velopment of  the  race  is  repeated,  and  the 
race  in  its  totality  may  be  viewed  as  one 
human  being,  in  whom  there  will  be  found 
the  necessary  steps  in  the  development  of 
individual  man."  That  humanity  is  a  living 
organism,  whose  members  are  vitally  related 
to  one  another,  is  acknowledged  in  common 
language  in  such  expressions  as  "  the  body 
of  the  people,"  "the  popular  voice,"  "com- 
mon consent ;"  and  the  analogy  between 
the  development  of  the  race  and  that  of  the 
individual  is  recognized  in  such  terms  as 
"  the  infancy  of  the  race,"  "  this  age  of  the 
world,"  "  the  development  of  humanity." 
That  the  human  being  needs  practical  so- 
cial education  is  shown  by  the  discords 
which  result  from  violations  of  the  laws 
governing  human  society.  The  first  social 
life  of  the  child  is  that  of  the  family,  which 
Froebel  would  have  cherished  and  fostered 
most  tenderly;  but  at  an  early  age  there 
comes  the  necessity  for  a  wider  companion- 
ship than  the  home  circle  affords,  and  the 
kindergarten,  which  is  pre-eminently  a  place' 
of  social  education,  offers  itself  to  meet  the 
needs  of  this  important  stage  of  develop- 
ment.    Edward   Everett   Hale   says,   "The 


great   idea   of  the   present  century  is   the 
togetherness  of  the  Imman  race." 

Considering  man  in  bis  relation  to  nat- 
ure, the  first  and  most  obvious  tboiigbt  is 
tbat  of  bis  body,  wbicb,  formed  of  tlie  ele- 
ments of  the  material  world,  is-  subject  to 
tbe  same  cbemical  laws,  and  upon  whose 
healthy  condition  right  living  on  the  higher 
planes  of  thought  and  affection  so  largely 
depends;  but  a  deeper  thought  than  this 
underlies  the  expressions  "  a  knowledge  of 
nature,"  "peace  witli nature,"  which  Froebel 
includes  in  his  statement  of  the  object  of 
education,  quoted  above.  In  nature  he  sees 
the  "embodied  thoughts  of  God,"  and  it  is 
to  nature  as  a  book  of  God  that  he  would 
lead  the  child.  The  interpretation  of  the 
book  of  nature  he  finds  in  its  symbolisms  of 
spiritual  truth.  His  words  are,  "All  natural 
phenomena  are  signs  of  spiritual  truth  to 
which  they  give  expressi<m  ;  thus  they  may 
be  called  symbols."  In  this  correspondence 
between  spiritual  truth  and  its  natural  sym- 
bol Froebel  sees  a  grand  illustration  of  the 
law  of  unity,  and  most  earnestly  he  urges 
upon  educators  the  obligation  to  apply  it. 
He  says :  "  It  is  quite  a  different  thing 
whether  we  look  upon  concrete  things  and 
facts  as  merely  material  things  and   facts, 


127 


serving  this  or  that  outward  purpose,  or 
contemplate  them  as  the  outward  forms  of 
spiritual  contents,  the  intermedia  of  higher 
truths  and  higher  kno^y ledge.  lu  this  sense 
the  material  world  is  a  symbol  of  the  spirit- 
ual world,  and  it  is  in  this  sense  that  educa- 
tion needs  to  use  it,  especially  in  leading  the 
child  to  the  ultimate  cause  of  all  things — 
God."  In  the  technical  kindergarten  gifts 
and  occupations  Froehel  presents  what  may 
be  called  a  primer  of  the  book  of  nature. 
These  gifts  and  occupations  he  bases  upon 
three  typical  forms — the  sphere,  the  cube, 
and  the  cylinder  —  in  which  he  sees  tUe 
whole  material  universe  epitomized  and 
symbolized.  These  three  forms  takeai  to- 
gether embody  the  law  of  unity,  and  in  their 
use  in  the  true  kindergarten  that  law  is  al- 
ways observed,  in  sequences  of  thought  and 
of  work. 

Hitherto  school  education  has  been  one- 
sided, confining  itself  chiefly  to  the  intellect, 
and  making  little  provision  for  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  heart  or  the  traiuing  of  the  hand. 
In  fact,  although  claiming  to  give  attention 
to  good  morals,  the  schools,  in  their  systems 
of  marks  and  distinctions,  have  had  a  pow- 
erful influence  in  exactly  the  opposite  direc- 
tion, fostering  untruthfulness,  self-seeking. 


128 


jealousy,  and  dislionesty  iu  its  worst  forms, 
aud  teudiug  to  defeat  eveu  the  one  end  chief- 
ly sought;  for  the  painstaking  but  slow 
child,  seeing  the  honors  of  the  school  be- 
stowed upon  his  more  gifted  l)nt  possibly 
less  faithful  corapauion,  becomes  discour- 
aged and  indifferent,  while  the  prize  pupil, 
wlio  has  worked,  not  in  joy  and  freedom, 
from  the  love  of  knowledge,  but,  as  he  un- 
blushingly  confesses,  for  marks,  is  thereby 
dwarfed  and  crippled  intellectually  as  well 
as  morally. 

Against  the  self-seeking  system  of  the 
schools  the  kindergarten  protests  in  the 
most  practical  manner,  for  all  its  methods 
are  adapted  to  develop  feelings  of  kindness, 
of  helpfulness,  of  sympathy  with  aud  of  re- 
spect for  others.  No  one  is  encouraged  to 
do  bettor  than  another,  but  each  is  stimu- 
lated to  do  his  best.  Right  feeling  is  neces- 
sary for  true  thinking;  it  is  only  when  the 
heart  is  joyous  that  the  intellect  does  its 
best  work.  The  child  depressed  by  discour- 
agement, burdened  with  fear,  wounded  by 
injustice,  or  hungry  for  love,  does  not  thrive 
either  intellectually  or  morally,  and  the  first 
aim  of  the  kindergarten  is  to  see  that  he  is 
happy. 

But  right  feelings,  without  means  of  ex- 


pression,  are  mere  seutiments;  they  must 
take  definite  aud  tangible  shape  before  they 
can  be  of  any  value,  either  to  the  subject  of 
them  or  to  another;  and  the  crowning  ex- 
cellence of  FroebeFs  system  —  that  which 
gives  it  practical  value — is  found  in  its  in- 
dustries aud  activities,  its  manual  work  aud 
representative  play,  through  which,  by  act- 
ual doing,  the  loving  thought  is  expressed. 
One  axjplicatiou  of  the  law  of  unity  is  seen 
in  the  fact  that  the  industries  of  the  kinder- 
garten are  the  industries  of  the  race  in  min- 
iature— working  in  clay,  building,  weaving, 
sewing,  etc, — all  leadiug  out  into  the  life 
of  the  world.  But  it  is  not  from  considera- 
tion of  their  use  in  the  activities  of  practi- 
cal life,  important  as  these  may  be,  that 
Froebel  lays  such  emphasis  upon  the  indus- 
tries of  the  child.  He  sees  that  man  in  his 
best  development  is  necessarily  a  creative 
being,  and  he  urges  a  higher  applicatiou  of 
the  law  of  unity  in  the  reasons  which  he 
gives  for  the  encouragement  of  creative  ac- 
tivity. He  says:  "The  Spirit  of  God  hov- 
ered over  chaos,  and  moved  it ;  aud  stones 
aud  plants,  beasts  and  man,  took  form  aud 
separate  being  and  life.  God  created  man 
in  his  own  imago;  therefore  man  should 
create  aud  bring  forth  like  God.  His  spirit, 
9 


130 


the  spirit  of  mau,  should  hover  over  the 
shapeless,  aud  move  it,  that  it  may  take 
shape  aud  form,  a  distiuct  beiug  aud  life  of 
its  owu.  This  is  the  high  meauiug,  the  deep 
siguificance,  the  great  purpose  of  work  aud 
iudustry,  of  productive  aud  creative  activ- 
ity." 

It  is  ouly  through  doing  that  the  human 
beiug  cau  be  developed  —  cau  realize  his 
owu  possibilities — cau  be  hiuiself ;  aud  he 
must  see  himself  objectively  iu  some  prod- 
uct of  his  owu  activity  before  he  cau  kuow 
himself.  With  what  feeliugs  of  satisfaction 
aud  self-respect,  with  what  a  seuse  of  his 
own  diguity  aud  importauce,  the  little  child 
of  the  kiudergarteu  exclaims,  as  he  holds 
up  some  finished  piece  of  work,  "See  what 
I  have  made!     I  did  it  all  myself!'' 

The  seed  sowu  by  Froel)el  more  than  six- 
ty years  ago  is  beariug  fruit.  Character- 
building  the  end  of  education,  and  the  train- 
ing of  the  hand  an  indispensable  means  to 
that  end,  are  two  thoughts  now  prominently 
before  our  leadiug  educators. 

In  regard  to  the  training  of  the  hand,  the 
question  of  the  schools  now  is  not  "  Shall 
we  encourage  it?"  but  ''What  industries 
cau  be  introduced,  aud  iu  what  way  ?" 

The  most  difficult  part  of  the  problem — 


131 


that  of  providing  work  suitable  for  the 
youngest  children — was  solved  by  Froebel 
himself.  It  is  left  for  his  followers  to  de- 
vise occupations  adapted  to  the  schools  and 
suited  to  the  needs  of  our  times. 

A  recognition  of  the  importance  of  infan- 
cy for  educational  purposes  is  one  of  the  pe- 
culiar features  of  Froebel's  system.  "  Life," 
he  says,  "  is  one  continuous  whole,  and  all 
the  stages  of  development  are  but  links  in 
the  great  chain  of  existence ;  and  since  noth- 
ing is  stronger  than  its  weakest  part,  it  is 
essential  that  the  first  link,  babyhood,  be 
made  firm  enough  to  bear  the  strain  of  fut- 
ure life."  Practical  as  he  always  is,  Froebel 
shows  in  Tlie  Mother  Play  and  Xwsery 
Songs — a  book  worthy  of  the  most  careful 
study  of  all  mothers — how  this  first  link  in 
the  chain  of  life  may  be  strengthened.  Two 
thoughts,  each  involving  the  idea  of  unity, 
furnish  the  key  to  this  book ;  they  are,  the 
relation  of  the  germ  stage  of  life  to  all  other 
stages,  and  the  symbolism  of  material  things. 

It  is  through  the  activity  of  play — the  . 
only  activity  in  which  the  child  is  free  and  - 
joyous — that  the  ends  sought  in  the  kinder-  ; 
garten  are  attained,  and  the  school  finds' 
work  made  easy  when  it  is  done  in  the  play 
spirit. 


132 


III  his  motto,  "  Come,  let  us  live  with  our 
children,"  Froebel  urges  the  fostering  of  a 
sympathetic  union betweeu  parent  aud  child. 

The  importance  and  the  sacredness  of  such 
relationship  he  expresses  in  these  Nvords  : 

"For  thyself  in  all  thy  works  take  care 
That  every  act  the  highest  meaning  bear; 
Wonld'st  thou  unite  the  child  for  aye  with  thee, 
Then  let  him  with  the  Highest  One  thy  union  see. 
Believe  that  by  the  good  that's  in  thy  mind 
Thy  child  to  good  will  early  be  inclined; 
By  every  noble  thought  with  which  thy  heai't   is 

fired 
The  child's  young  soul  will  surely  be  iuspil^ed; 
And  can'st  thou  any  better  gift  bestow 
Than  union  with  the  Eternal  One  to  know?" 


AN   EXPLANATION   OF   THE    KINDER- 
GARTEN, INTENDED  FOR  MOTHERS. 

BY  AIJCE    A.  CHADWICK.* 

If  to  figbt  its  way  were  tlie  only  proof 
needed  of  a  good  thing,  then  the  kinder- 
garten lias  proved  itself.  It  seems  a  raarvel 
at  first  sight  that  this  system  has  gained 
ground  so  slowly  in  America.  We  call  our- 
selves progressive  ;  we  feel  our  common  peo- 
ple in  thought-power  to  be  more  than  abreast 
of  those  of  otlier  nations;  we  are  especially 
proud  of  our  educational  advantages,  and 
the  foundation  principle  of  the  kindergarten 
— liberty  under  law — is  the  corner-stone  of 
our  civil  government.  How,  then,  shall  we 
account  for  the  lack  of  assimilation  ? 

In  the  first  place,  the  kindergarten  mado 
its  entrance  among  us  as  ""  Hamlet,  with 
Hamlet  left  out."  Miss  Peabody,  to  whose 
I)hilauthropic   courage   and  persistence  we 

*  Written  in  April,  1890,  in  aid  of  a  proposed  kinder- 
garten movement  in  Jamaica,  L.  I. 


134 


owe  the  introduction  of  the  system  into  our 
country,  during  her  first  observation  of  it 
in  Germany,  caught  some  of  the  mechanism 
and  ideas  without  the  spiiit  and  controlling 
laws.  Thus  presented,  the  scheme  lacked 
balance;  in  fact,  became  no  scheme  at  all, 
but  a  mere  collection  of  rather  interesting 
novelties  among  educational  ideas.  No 
one  felt  this  with  keener  regret  than  Miss 
Peabody  herself.  She  describes  her  first 
kindergarten  as  "  a  presumptuous  attempt" 
— as  "only  the  old  primary-school  amelio- 
rated by  a  mixture  of  infant-scliool  plays." 
The  result,  all  over  the  country,  was  a  wave 
of  so-called  object-teaching  which  produced 
a  set  of  precocious  little  prigs,  more  painful 
to  our  good  American  connnou-sense  than 
the  veriest  dullard  ever  salted  and  put  down 
for  use  by  the  old  system.  I  have  often 
heard  a  child  of  five  or  six  years  go  through 
a  formula  something  like  the  following: 

"  I  hold  in  my  hand  an  object.  It  is 
spherical ;  it  has  a  circumference  or  periph- 
ery and  a  diameter;  its  circumference  is 
3.141C  times  its  diameter.  Its  diameter  is  a 
right  line  passing  through  its  centre  and 
terminating  in  opposite  points  of  its  circum- 
ference." And  so  on  through  all  its  quali- 
ties of  surface,  density,  opaqueness,  etc.,  in 


135 


the  largest  terms  furuished  by  a  scientific 
nomenclature.  And  admiring  friends  have 
raised  hands  and  eyes,  exclaiming,  ''  Won- 
derful!"  And  so  it  was  —  wonderful  tom- 
foolery! as  wretched  as  any  other  mere 
memory  lesson.  The  kindergarten  chikl 
says  "  Ball  " — like  any  other  child. 

In  the  second  place,  probably  we  were  so 
soundly  set  in  the  notion  that  everything 
American — and  particularly  everything  edu- 
cational in  America — was  of  such  superior 
character  that  to  import  an  improvement 
from  Germany  verged,  at  least,  ujion  the 
ridiculous.  We  forgot  that  the  philosophies 
nested  in  Germany  (and  the  secret  of  the 
kindergarten  is  its  philosophy),  the  arts 
and  sciences  in  France ;  and  when  the  Cen- 
tennial exhibits  from  Spain,  Sweden,  and 
other  countries  opened  to  us  new  revelations 
of  methods  and  appliances,  our  admiration 
was  tempered  with  indifference  or  incredu- 
lity. 

In  the  third  place,  the  more  tools  of  edu- 
cation have  come  to  stand  for  its  soul.  Try 
to  conquer  it  as  we  may,  the  old-time  super- 
stition haunts  our  blood — that  all  the  world 
of  knowledge  is  in  a  book — all  the  world  of 
action  in  a  pen  ;  and  the  backbone  of  oppo- 
sition to  the  kindergarten  lies  in  the  fact 


that,  up  to  the  age  of  six  or  seven,  the  child 
is  not  tanght  reading  and  writing. 

In  the  fourth  place,  it  was  noticed  that 
kindergarten  children,  after  promotion  to 
the  primary  grade,  did  jioor  work.  Then 
where  was  the  boasted  developing  power  of 
the  kindergarten  ?  The  child  could  not 
safely  pass  out  of  a  system  in  which  order 
means  rhythmical  movement  into  a  system 
in  which  order  means  rigidity  —  therefore 
the  system  which  allowed  movement  was  at 
fault. 

All  these  obstacles  were  overcome.  Miss 
Peabody  visited  Germany  again,  and  brought 
back  the  spirit  to  put  with  her  materials. 
America  has  developed  modesty  in  connec- 
tion with  the  knowledge  that  she  does  not 
possess  a  single  university,  except  in  name, 
and  that  most  of  her  colleges  are  little  more 
than  high-schools,  the  national  passion  for 
unearned  titles  having  attacked  institutions 
as  well  as  individuals. 

As  to  the  third  objection,  it  has  been  found 
that  the  kindergarten  child  at  seven  learns 
in  two  months  to  read  and  write  as  well  as 
his  compeers  in  the  old  primary,  has  wasted 
no  energy  upon  dead  material,  and  is  at 
home  in  all  the  world  beside.  And  as  to  the 
fourth,  educators  have  begun  to  realize  that 


a  flower  wbich  has  langbed  iu  the  suushiue 
aud  nodded  its  head  to  the  wiud  cauiiot  be 
suddenly  taken  up  by  its  roots,  put  in  a 
pot,  and  set  iu  a  vow  with  seventy -three 
other  little  jDots  (I  believe  the  average  of 
the  public  school  primary  in  Brooklyn  has 
been  reduced  to  seventy-three)  without  visi- 
bly drooping,  and  losing  for  a  long  time 
both  leaf  and  blossom.  So,  at  the  present 
time  iu  the  best  schools,  the  kindergarten 
spirit  reaches  up  tbrough  all  the  primaries; 
and  great  hearts  and  bright  minds  are  work- 
ing that  the  sun  may  shine  and  the  breeze 
blow  even  through  the  academic  department. 
But,  when  all  these  difficulties  were  put 
out  of  the  way,  the  last  enemy  was  worse 
than  them  all.  No  opposition,  honest  or 
dishonest,  ever  hurt  the  kindergarten  so 
much  as  the  raft  of,  perhaps  conscientious, 
but  certainly  misguided  young  women  who, 
with  very  superficial  knowledge,  set  up  small 
fancy-work  establishments  and  called  them 
kindergartens.  These  have  done  the  system 
irremediable  harm.  These  are  responsible 
for  the  misconceptions  in  the  minds  of  par- 
ents which,  once  rooted,  are  extremely  diffi- 
cult to  remove.  I  can  but  believe  that  this 
obstacle,  too,  will  finally  disappear  before 
the  persistence  oi  inteUigent  mothers. 


138 


But,  while  we  talk  of  objections,  to  wliat 
are  the  objectious  made  ?  What  is  this  kin- 
dergarten ? 

I  have  heard  many  defiiiitions.  Soiue  say 
it  is  a  play-school.  Well,  there  is  uolhing 
wroug  about  this  defiuitiou.  It  is  ouly  in- 
complete. Others  say  it  is  a  pleasant  nurs- 
ery arrangement,  by  wbich  mothers  who  are 
tired  of  their  cliildreu  may  dispose  of  tliem 
for  three  hours  each  day.  The  most  con- 
spicuous deficiency  of  this  definition  is  the 
wholesale  disposition  of  the  mothers.  What 
of  those  who  dismiss  the  maid,  and  add 
house-work  to  their  man^^  cares,  that  they 
may  be  able  to  pay  tuition  ?  or  of  those  who 
uudertalie  outside  work  to  earn  money  for 
the  same  purpose  ?  What  of  those  who  take 
the  children  to  school,  stay  with  them,  and 
bring  them  home,  in  cases  where  the  school 
is  too  far  from  the  home  for  the  child  to 
travel  alone  ?  And  what  of  those  who,  un- 
able to  find  a  kindergarten  near,  spend  time 
and  means  to  study  the  system  that  they 
nuiy  give  their  children  some  of  its  benefits 
at  home  ? 

The  most  comprehensive  definition  I  have 
ever  heard  is  that  given  by  an  acquaintance 
of  my  own,  a  gentleman  of  some  culture  and 
verj"  decided  opinions.     He  calls  it  a  hum- 


139 


bug !  Cousideriug  the  number  of  people  of 
Doble  character  and  advanced  intelligence 
who  advocate  the  system,  this  gentleman 
assumes  for  himself  a  very  high  standard  of 
criticism.  I  feel  compelled  to  state  that  his 
opinion  is  of  that  high  and  abstract  order 
which  does  not  require  local  proof — he  has 
never  entered  a  kindergarten. 

In  presuming  myself  to  offer  a  definition, 
I  recall  that  systematized  thought  runs 
along  two  parallel  lines  —  the  natural  and 
the  conventional.  The  kiudergarten,  then, 
is  that  scheme  of  education  which  reduces 
the  evolution  of  child- nature  to  conven- 
tional form,  and  makes  it  an  applied  sci- 
ence, to  stand  beside  and  co-operate  with 
the  natural  expression  of  child-nature  in  the 
home. 

But  what  is  a  child  ? 

He  is  a  living,  moving  being — intensely 
alive,  and  often  unspeakably  moving  ! 

What  /jrtshe? 

He  has  will-power .  He  loves  to  choose  his 
own  way. 

He  has  tliouglit-jyower.  He  thinks  of  every- 
thing in  the  heaven  above  and  in  the  earth 
beneath ;  and  the  child  does  not  live  who, 
if  refused  healthy  food  for  thought,  will  not 
find  some  food  somewhere. 


140 


He  has  lieart-power.  He  loves,  or  is  very 
hungry  to  love. 

He  has  hodij-power.  He  runs  and  leaps  and 
tumbles  and  swings  and  pulls  and  strains 
and  shouts  from  morning  till  niglit. 

He  has  moral-power.  His  instinct  of  right 
and  wrong  is  keen,  and  his  desire  for  the 
right  is  earnest  and  eager.  No  ordinarily 
normal  child  ever  desires  of  himself  to  do 
wrong ;  w  hen  he  does,  it  is  because  we  make 
him. 

What  does  he  ? 

He  observes.  Pie  watches  nature  from  the 
ground  to  the  sky;  all  life,  animal  or  vege- 
table, is  subject  to  his  keen  scrutiny;  he 
holds  the  mineral  kingdom  in  his  hands  5 
and  the  inner  world  of  our  thought  is  not 
hid  from  him,  for  he  sees  straight  into  the 
heart  of  the  man  or  woman  who  pretends  to 
be  wise  in  his  presence. 

He  investUjates.  He  pokes  and  pries  and 
questions  and  searches,  and  if  need  be  to 
climb  a  tree,  or  slip  down  into  a  gull}',  or 
crawl  under  a  steam-engine,  nor  height  nor 
depth  nor  anything  between  shall  hinder 
him. 

And  he  plays. 

He  plays  untiringly  ;  and  in  his  play  two 
elements  preponderate — the  exercise  of  the 


141 


analytic  and  synthetic  faculties,  or  games 
of  construction,  and  of  the  dramatic  faculty, 
or  games  of  imitation. 

Very  well  then,  what  does  the  kindergar- 
ten do  for  this  child  ?  In  the  first  place,  it 
keeps  him  alive  and  keeps  him  moving.  His 
natural,  healthy,  God-given  activity  is  not 
confined  within  the  cells  of  an  artificial  edu- 
cational scheme,  which  is  a  sort  of  progressive 
prison  system,  but  every  faculty  of  mind 
and  body  is  given  free  play  through  a  thou- 
sand avenues  of  expression.  Are  his  dear 
eyes,  through  which  the  eager  soul  questions 
and  will  not  down,  pinned  to  a  book  to  find 
outthaf'The— sun— has— risen?"  No!  He 
raises  eyes  and  arms  and  soul,  and  sings : 

"Good-morning,  merry  sunshine!" 

And  through  the  happy  circle,  and  round 
the  busy  table,  he  learns  his  kinship  with 
all  the  life  and  motion  in  the  great,  wide 
world. 

It  educates  his  will ;  gives  him  gradual 
power  in  choosing  his  own  way.  Here  comes 
in  that  marvellous  principle  of  Froebel's 
which  he  calls  self-activity,  and  which  I  un- 
derstand to  mean  the  development  of  the 
child  from  within  and  of  his  otcn    willing, 


training  him  to  take  steps  in  all  directions 
of  himself,  rather  than  in  obedience  to  com- 
mands from  without.  This  development  of 
intelligent  free-will  is  the  finest  foimdation 
iu  boy  or  girl  for  good  American  citizenship. 

It  develops  normally  his  ilwnglit -power. 
He  is  not  asked  to  grasp  anything  which 
is  unintelligible  to  him,  and  which  has, 
therefore,  no  "  think  "  in  it.  He  stores  men- 
tal food,  not  as  a  barn  stores  hay,  but  as  his 
stomach  stores  nutrition,  with  gradual  as- 
similation. He  is  allowed  to  look,  to  listen, 
to  toucb,  to  smell,  to  taste  to  his  heart's  con- 
tent, and  is  not  asked  to  formulate  his 
thought  until  it  has  rounded  itself  out  of 
his  own  perceptions.  He  is  never  asked  to 
make  bricks  without  straw.  Thus  clear  con- 
ception is  stimulated  through  exact  percep- 
tion ;  and  iu  the  continual  experience  of  the 
relation  of  cause  and  effect,  sure  foundations 
are  laid  for  that  logical  power  which  is  the 
crown  of  all  mentality,  and  for  that  rever- 
ence for  and  obedience  to  law  which  comes 
only  from  the  habitual  sense  of  its  divinity 
and  immutability. 

It  gives  him  the  calmness  of  a  satisfied 
licart.  His  emotional  nature  is  tuned  suc- 
cessively in  all  keys  of  home-love,  aifectious 
of  kinship  and  companionship,  up  to  the  de- 


113 


vout  worsliip-love.  The  little  songs  range 
from  the  "  Mother  good  aud  dear,"  along 
"  Teachers  and  all  dear  companions/'  uj)  to 
the  Great  Father — 

"...  whose  love  alone 
Thy  little  one  doth  keep." 

I  know  of  nothing  which  embodies  the  sonl 
of  adoration  more  than  the  song  of  the  lilies 
opening  their  cnps  to  the  golden  sun.  To 
see  the  sweet  baby  hands  held  together  cnp- 
shaped,  softly  uplifted  and  opened,  while  the 
earnest  eyes  look  npward  and  the  dear  im- 
perfect voices  follow  the  melody  as  best  they 
may,  some  with  bird  -  like  clearness,  some 
with  precious  brokenness  and  failing  —  to 
see  this  is  to  shed  tears  which  come  from 
whence  —  who  knows  ?  perhaps  "  from  the 
depth  of  some  divine  despair,"  for  who  shall 
not  despair  of  seeing  the  eternity  which  lies 
in  these  simple  things  ? 

It  uses  his  restless  hody,  from  the  "  little 
men"  who  "dance  and  sing"  (the  lingers) 
to  the  legs  which  imitate  the  spring  of  a 
frog.  His  fingers  follow  his  thought  and 
construct  untiringly  ;  and,  by  the  continued 
orderly  taking  apart  and  putting  together 
of  material,  destruciiveness  and  constructive- 
ness,  analysis  aud  synthesis,  are  educated. 


144 


The  development  of  moral  power  is  iu- 
teuded  to  iniderlie  every  part  of  kindergarten 
work.  Not  only  is  the  atmosphere  of  the 
school-room  free  from  any  trace  of  suspicion 
or  distrust — not  only  are  pictures  of  love, 
truth,  aud  nobility  continually  held  before 
the  child's  mind — not  only  is  iudividual  in- 
dependence united  with  mutual  helpfulness 
— not  only  are  effects  sliown  to  be  related  to 
causes — but  every  line  drawn  nearer  straight- 
ness,  every  circle  curved  more  completely^ 
every  block  placed  more  exactly,  every  color 
defined  more  distinctly",  every  flower  named 
from  its  odor,  every  sound  heard  more  cor- 
rectly, is  an  advance  in  jihysical  rectitude 
which  is  considered  to  bear  a  direct  relation 
to  morality. 

His  ohserrailon  is  trained  to  keenness 
through  the  natural  channels  which  lie  close 
to  him,  aud  everything  dear  to  him,  from  the 
bird  which  flies  and  the  fish  which  swims 
to  the  insects  which  creep  and  crawl,  all 
avenues  of  art  and  literature,  and  particu- 
larly the  noble  world  of  common  industry 
— all  these  hold  open  doius  to  his  percep- 
tions. 

It  encourages  him  in  iuvesfifjation.  Infor- 
mation is  never  put  into  him  ;  but  he  stands 
towards  all  knowledge  in  the  attitude  of  a 


145 


discoverer.  So,  whatever  he  acquires  is 
charged  with  the  vitalitj-  of  individual  ef- 
fort aloug  the  line  of  original  investigation. 

And — hejflays.  Yes,  let  us  say  it  frankly 
and  fearlessly  to  those  who  accuse  and  scorn, 
he  plays  with  body  and  heart  and  soul.  The 
absorbing  passion  of  his  nature  is  gratified 
to  the  full ;  his  work  is  happy  play ;  his 
play  is  happy  work  ;  and  this  is  the  crown 
of  the  system — happiness  in  activity. 

Through  what  means  does  the  kindergar- 
ten accomplisli  these  ends  ? 

Through  live  agencies  —  Songs,  Stories, 
Gifts,  Occupations,  and  Games. 

The  songs  form  the  basis  of  the  natural 
sciences,  and  inspire  a  reverence  for  nature, 
human  life,  and  the  Author  of  life. 

The  stories  develop  imagination,  the  his- 
toric taste,  and  the  recognition  of  law  in  the 
unseen. 

The  gifts — balls,  cubes,  sticks,  rings,  peas, 
etc. — form  the  basis  of  art  and  mathematics. 

The  occupations — perforating  paper,  mat- 
weaving,  clay  -  modelling,  etc.  —  develop  an 
intelligent  interest  in  and  respect  for  the 
industrial  arts. 

The  games  are  the  basis  of  moral  develop- 
ment. 

While  these  are  the  main  lines  of  thought, 

10 


Ii6 


it  is  impossible  to  draw  sharp  lines  of  defini- 
tion since,  in  some  senses,  each  includes 
every  other. 

No  one  can  be  more  acutely  aware  than 
myself  how,  in  the  endeavor  to  bring  the 
kindergarten  within  the  limits  of  a  half- 
hour  description,  I  have  left  out  much  of  its 
life  and  spirit,  and  scarcely  hinted  at  the 
philosophy  upon  which  it  is  founded.  The 
mediation  of  opposites,  or  the  law  by  which 
the  forces  of  nature  are  kept  in  equilibrium, 
which  wastes  and  renews,  destroys  and  re- 
builds, takes  in  and  gives  out  —  the  persist- 
ency with  which,  upon  a  fair  adjustment  of 
body,  mind,  and  soul,  or  morality,  an  earnest 
religious  spirit  is  developed — the  various 
adjustments  of  work  through  which  inde- 
pendence, generosity,  concentration,  alert- 
ness, all  qualities  of  character  are  brought 
out  and  thought-power  thrown  along  broad- 
er lines  —  these  and  other  principles  might 
be  dwelt  upon. 

I  may  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that 
new  schemes  of  physical  development  seem 
to  grow  from  kindergarten  seed.  The  Del- 
sarte  gymnastic  course  embodies  in  its  move- 
ments the  wave  of  the  bird-wing,  the  spring 
of  the  frog,  the  uplifted  hands  to  greet  the 
sun-rising,  etc.     And  the  sounds  of  nature 


furuisli  the  best  moderu  elocution  practice. 
To  get  the  tiiiibre  of  voice  which  comes 
from  throwing-  it  forward  into  the  nose  and 
lips,  what  better  or  more  delightful  exer- 
cises than  the  soughing  of  the  wind  or  the 
mooing  of  a  cow  ? 

I  must  give  another  word  to  the  unity  of 
action  which  is  the  ideal  phase  of  the  kinder- 
garten— that  threefold  development  through 
which  the  house,  fitly  framed  together,  is 
furnished  throughout,  and  love  becomes  the 
dweller  within.  We  hear  of  this  wonderful, 
even  growth  of  the  physical,  mental,  and 
moral  faculties  ,•  but  what  is  it  in  actual 
practice?  Few  schools  seem  to  know.  I 
often  hear  it  announced  as  the  animating 
principle  of  schools  w^hich  in  method  might 
be  removed  to  red  school-houses  fifty  years 
back  without  serious  trouble  in  the  matter 
of  readjusting  the  century.  We  know  that 
formerly,  in  a  child's  education,  to  read  was 
one  thing  considered  alone,  to  write  another, 
and  to  cipher  another,  and  they  all  three 
referred  to  mental  development.  The  phys- 
ical structure  largely  took  care  of  itself ;  and 
if  it  did  not  develop  satisfactorily,  the  stu- 
dent w^as  ordered  to  discontinue  study.  The 
two  were  not  considered  harmonious.  Mo- 
rality, if  not  a  matter  of  the  home,  was  left 


148 


to  the  Cluirch.  There  seemed  to  be  do  con- 
ception of  the  fact  that  these  spheres  could 
not  be  relegated  to  diiferent  departments — 
that  they  are  indissolubly  interwoven — a 
marvellous  trinity  in  unity — that  a  strong 
body  is  indispensable  to  orderly  mental  ac- 
tion— that  mental  balance  is  apart  of  physi- 
cal health  —  that  a  clean,  wholesome  body 
and  a  clear  mind  are  essential  elements  of 
morality — and  that  the  whole  is  a  dead  ma- 
chine without  a  fine  religious  intensity  to 
rule  and  direct  it.  13ut  in  the  kindergarten 
this  truth  is  never  lost  sight  of.  In  the  sim- 
plest mat,  with  the  "one  up,  one  down"  of 
the  blue  strips  through  the  white,  while  his 
hand  acquires  skill,  the  child  sings  of  the 
bird's-nest  and  the  basket-weaver,  and  his 
mind  is  enlarged  by  the  conception  of  the 
tine  line  which  joins  animals  with  man. 
He  works  to  develop  his  own  power;  yet, 
if  need  be,  his  work  is  laid  aside  that  he 
may  help  some  weaker  one;  and  so  he  learns 
to  temper  the  aggressive  "  All  things  are 
my  right"  with  the  gentler  "All  things  are 
not  expedient,"  which  is  the  foundation  of 
true  and  willing  service  for  humanitj'.  The 
little  mat  is  to  be  a  gift  for  father  or  motlier. 
The  more  cleanly  the  work,  the  closer  and 
straighter  the  weaving,  the  more  worthy  the 


gift;  and  so,  iu  the  soil  of  human  love,  is 
sowed  the  seed  of  the  religion  which  huaa- 
bly  refers  its  smallest  service  to  divine 
approval. 

Of  special  developments  of  the  kinder- 
garten I  select  two  which  seem  to  me  of 
marked  value  —  the  education,  or  leading 
out,  of  the  imagination,  and  of  the  love  of 
nature. 

There  is  nothing  so  essential  to  whole- 
someness  and  completeness  of  existence  as 
imagination.  In  most  of  us  it  is  deadened 
hy  a  thousand  artifices.  In  children  we 
are  often  afraid  of  it,  lest  it  lead  into  un- 
truth. Well,  what  is  truth  ?  Is  it  only  some- 
thing that  can  be  seen  or  felt  or  heard,  like 
a  chair,  for  instance.  A  chair  can  lie  iu 
many  ways.  It  can  say  strength  in  its  ap- 
pearance, and  carry  the  frailty  of  poor- 
est glue ;  it  can  say  wealth,  and  embody  the 
disharmony  of  a  plush -furnished  parlor  and 
a  shabby  dining-room  ;  it  can  say  beauty, 
and  defy  every  principle  of  art.  Truth  is 
not  concrete  nor  literal  nor  material  —  but 
ideal;  and  imagination  is  the  hand  which 
draws  aside  the  veil  of  material  and  shows 
us  the  shrine  within.  Pardon  me  if  I  illus- 
trate by  an  experience  of  my  own.  One 
Easter  Sundiiy  I  opened  for  the  children  a 


150 


motli-cocoon  wLicli  had  beeu  banging  in 
the  library  all  winter.  As  the  poor  bro\A'n 
thing  lay  there  —  a  marvellous  contrast  to 
the  magnificent  creature  Avith  waving  wings 
which  should  have  been  born  of  it — we  yet 
noticed  a  certain  beauty  in  the  regular 
circles  of  the  body  and  the  branching  lines 
of  the  close-laid  wings.  I  was  remarking 
what  a  pretty  conventional  Easter  design 
could  be  made  of  a  series  of  interlacing 
rings  and  folded  wings,  with  free,  waving 
wings  coming  out  of  and  above  them,  when 
Mr.  Chadwick  suddenly  exclaimed,  ^'  It  looks 
like  Egyptian  architecture." 

Suddenly  the  whole  duml),  dull  face  of 
Egypt  passed  before  nie  —  the  introverted, 
unblooming  i)illars  of  her  temples,  her  im- 
ages with  cramped  limbs  and  moveless 
wings,  her  dead  men  and  her  dead  divinities 
enswathed  in  countless  wrappings,  and  it 
seemed  as  if  a  sudden  revelation  had  come 
to  me  of  one  of  nature's  great  parallels. 
What  if  the  centuries  of  Egypt's  history 
w^ere  only  the  chrysalis's  sleep  in  which  lay 
folded  the  divine  wings  of  the  Christian 
resurrection  ?  Which  was  the  truth  ?  The 
literal  construction  of  the  creature  which 
lay  before  us  —  which  we  could  see  and 
handle,  or  the  interpretation   through  im- 


151 


agination  of  that  construction  wLicb  gave 
ns  tlie  sense  of  God's  slow  and  grand  foot- 
steps tlirongh  eternity  ? 

On  the  first  occasion  of  my  reading  this 
paper  I  was  asked  by  a  gentleman  in  the 
audience  if  I  thought  it  possible  to  teach  a 
child  this  form  of  truth.  I  have  ever  since 
regretted  that  my  own  slowness  in  formu- 
lating thonght,  and  the  approach  of  train- 
time  prevented  me  from  answering  him.  It 
seems  to  me  so  simple.  The  child  of  the  pro- 
A^erbial  "  poor  but  honest  "  parents  can  easily 
be  led  to  see  the  untruth  of  a  plush  coat.  Not 
that  it  cannot  be  afforded;  for  the  required 
price  might  be  strained  out  of  papa's  pocket, 
but  that  it  tells  such  horrible  lies.  It  says, 
'' Everything  I  wear  and  eat  and  lis^e  with 
is  as  costly  and  fine  as  this  coat.  I  have  a 
maid  who  cares  for  my  elegant  attire,  and 
walks  with  me  when  I  go  out,  to  see  that  I 
do  not  soil  it.  My  mamma  wears  tailor- 
made  street  snits  and  silken  house  gowns. 
My  papa  drives  to  business  with  a  pair  of 
handsome  grays."  This  chiUl  can  be  easily 
made  to  see  that  a  room  furnished  with 
special  elegance  and  set  apart  for  purely  so- 
cial purposes  in  a  home  of  very  limited  so- 
cial relations  throws  the  home  out  of  har- 
mony.    Every  child  has  daily  opportunity 


152 


to  see  tins  sort  of  tiutb,  and  tlie  cbiM  ac- 
customed to  this  atmosphere  is  lifted  largely 
out  of  the  sphere  of  temptation  to  mere  un- 
truth of  the  lips.  The  trend  of  all  kinder- 
garten work  is  in  this  direction — is  towards 
conceiving  the  relation  of  parts  to  each 
other  and  to  the  whole.  It  is  an  education 
in  a  sense  of  harmony  and  proportion  —  it 
aims  at  the  power  to  take  away  here  and 
put  there  in  order  to  preserve  balance — the 
power  to  sacrifice  non-essentials  for  essen- 
tials— the  power  to  see  which  are  non-essen- 
tials and  which  are  essentials  —  the  power 
to  live  towards  ideals. 

Again,  through  sight  and  sound,  tlirougb 
eager  hope  and  happy  remembrance,  the 
kindergarten  brings  the  child  closer  to  dear 
Mother  Earth.  And  love  of  nature  is  Imagi- 
nation's twin-sister,  without  which  she  is 
only  half  herself.  Why  are  there  so  many 
who  have  eyes  and  see  not  ?  Because  the 
great  gardens  of  celestial  beauty  have  been 
shut  to  them  as  children.  We  close  heav- 
en's gateway  with  the  bolt  of  artifice,  and 
when  the  little  ones  are  tired  waiting  they 
wander  away.  But  the  kindergarten,  know- 
ing that  there  is  a  divine  reason  in  a  child's 
love  of  nature,  draws  the  bolt,  the  children 
pass  within  and  find  God.     And  there  are 


153 


deeper  fouiulations  laid  for  tliein  than  tlie 
mere  surface  seuse  of  beauty.  For  it  is  not 
alone  that  rivers  move  to  music,  that 
clouds  have  radiance,  and  flowers  all  tender- 
ness of  color  and  form — it  is  that  there  is  a 
great  heart  iu  nature  which  is  the  other  half 
of  the  passionate  human  heart  —  and  that 
"deep  calleth  unto  deep." 

But,  having  once  made  your  child  an 
American  citizen,  you  can  never  again  re- 
duce him  to  Oriental  servitude.  So  no 
sketch  of  the  kindergarten  is  complete  with- 
out a  hint  at  least  of  the  inevitable  out- 
growth which,  some  years  ago,  grouped  its 
forms  aronnd  the  name  of  the  new  education. 

In  the  old  system,  to  the  well-known 
formula  of  reading,  writing,  and  ciphering 
were  added,  at  about  the  age  of  eight,  the 
deeper  abstractions  of  grammar  and  history 
and  geography  in  such  form  that  what  was 
already  narrowed  into  mere  intellectual  de- 
velopment was  further  narrowed  into  one 
department  of  the  intellect — memory.  At 
about  twelve  years  of  age  he  was  asked  to 
write  a  composition  —  on  Spring,  perhaps! 
To  compose,  classify,  arrange,  and  express 
ideas  ?  Where  had  his  previous  training 
led  up  to  this  ? 

In  the  new  education,  while  the  little  one 


154 


is  yet  busy  Tvith  liis  toys,  he  groups  around 
the  Legend  of  Hiawatha  the  early  history  of 
his  country,  its  geography,  knowledge  of 
the  wild  forest  and  of  the  teeming  life  of 
lake  and  river,  of  hunting,  of  primitive  agri- 
culture, and  of  the  customs  of  life  among 
the  Indians.  Its  wild  yet  simple  names 
come  more  easily  to  him  than  his  own 
tongue. 

The  wild  heron,  the  Shuh-shuh-gah,  the 
fire  -  fly,  Wah  -  wah  -  taysee,  the  Big  Sea- 
Water,  Gitche-Gumee,  the  Laughing  Water, 
Minne-ha-ha,  are  names  which  appeal  to  the 
instinctive  iioetry  in  a  child's  nature,  and 
are  rehearsed  even  by  a  three-year-old  out 
of  pure  pleasure  in  the  sound  of  them. 
Later  on,  the  leaf-buds  gathered  in  February, 
or  the  seeds  planted  in  April,  may  be  devel- 
oped into  a  study  of  forms  of  growth  in 
many  lands ;  of  comparative  methods  of  cul- 
tivation ;  of  commerce  and  manufactures  as 
impelling  forces  of  civilization  ;  of  different 
kinds  of  civilization  as  induced  l)y  diifering 
natural  agencies.  And  this  habit  of  con- 
tinuity—  of  gravitating  towards  a  centre 
while  yet  moving  outward  along  different 
lines  of  thought,  has  an  influence  insensible 
but  inevitable.  It  induces  calmness,  bal- 
ance,  logic.     And  all   this   and  more   may 


155 


grow  out  of  an  exercise  which  is  primarily 
only  a  language  lesson,  but  which  gives  the 
child  a  grasp  of  the  two  main  stays  of  edu- 
cation— power  of  thought  and  power  of  ex- 
pression. For,  let  us  put  it  as  we  may,  let 
us  assure  ourselves  (as  we  ought)  of  the 
value  of  certain  branches,  of  the  all-impor- 
tance of  this,  of  the  absolute  necessity  of  that 
-it  yet  remains  indisputable  that  the  most 
potent  evideuce  of  culture  in  any  man  or 
woman  among  us  is  the  ability  to  think 
clearly  and  the  power  to  express  thought 
in  the  English  language,  and  nothing  is  so 
abominably  and  disgracefully  neglected 
from  the  primary-school  straight  through 
the  university. 

By  the  time  the  child  is  twelve  years  old 
he  may  never  have  opened  an  English  gram- 
mar, but  he  has  well  begun  ''  the  art  of  speak- 
ing and  writing  the  English  language  cor- 
rectly ;"  and  Longfellow,  Whittier,  Holmes, 
Irving,  Shakespeare,  Chaucer,  Milton,  are 
as  open  for  his  picking  as  a  field  of  daisies. 
He  may  not  know  that  "a  noun  is  the  name 
of  any  person,  place,  or  thing."  But  he  has 
a  live  interest  in  persons  :  Stanley  and  Ken- 
nan,  Gladstone  and  Bismarck,  Washington 
and  Caesar.  His  knowledge  oi  places  is  not 
limited  to  a  list  of  capes  or  capitals.      He 


156 


knows  the  geography  and  climate  (or  cli- 
mates) of  Russia,  and  what  is  going  on  there, 
and  that  Brazil  is  a  live  country  struggling 
for  a  live  government.  And  his  study  of 
things  embodies  the  concrete  foundations  of 
science  and  mathematics,  so  when  he  is  set 
down  to  write  a  composition  he  has  some 
facility  in  the  grouping  of  ideas,  some  skill 
in  the  use  of  words.  From  the  beginning, 
when  he  handled  a  live  cat  in  his  study  of 
comparative  physiology,  and  wrote  in  his 
own  words  what  he  saw  and  felt,  he  has 
been  slowly  led  to  enlarge  his  vocabu-< 
lary  through  his  own  perceptions  and 
thought,  and  by  a  study  of  the  best  words 
of  others. 

You  may  think  my  sketch  of  the  old  edu- 
cation unnecessary  at  the  present  time.  I 
think  I  am  not  wrong  in  saying  that,  in 
many  of  our  representative  schools,  gram- 
mar is  the  same  old  deadening  grind  ;  geog- 
raphy is  yet  more  political  than  physical 
or  structural ;  history  is  learned  so  many 
pages  at  a  lesson  by  students  fourteen,  fif- 
teen, and  sixteen  years  old ;  three-fourths  of 
the  arithmetic  taught  is  a  mass  of  unneces- 
sary rubbish  which  wears  by  its  monotony 
while  it  plants  no  new  j)rincii)le,  develops 
no  faculty,  and  is  worse  than  useless  in  the 


157 


world  of  business  men  ami  womcu.*  Tlio 
students  stultify  growth  with  over -study 
until  physical  tone  is  permanently  lost,  men- 
tal development  hindered  by  the  close  push 
and  jostle  of  tumultuous  ideas,  and  morality 
stifled  by  the  mad  prostration  of  our  chil- 
dren before  a  car  of  Juggernaut  called  one 
hundred  per  cent.  Allow  me  to  ask  what 
we  are  to  do  with  the  statement  made  b}' 
Dr.  Andrews,  of  Brown  University,  that  our 
boys  and  girls  are  two  years  behind  the 
average  of  the  same  age  in  Germany  ?  If 
we  cannot  refute  it,  then  let  us  clear  out 
the  dead  brush  which  clogs  their  jiath,  and 
wastes  two  beautiful  years.  I  saj',  let  us; 
for  it  is  a  cause  wliich  belongs  to  women. 
And  particularly,  let  no  woman  who  is  a 
mother  ever  lose  the  courage  of  her  convic- 
tions ;  for  the  saying  "Many  mickles  make  a 
muckle"  is  everlastingly  true.  In  the  hope 
and  heart-throb  of  only  one  individual  every 
great  movement  is  first  conceived  ;  hut  out 
of  the  live  and  unified  wills  of  many  it  is 
finally  born  into  opeivlife  and  action. 

Concerning   the   practical   part    of   your 


*  And  art,  music,  science,  and  literature  are  not  even 
dreamed  of  as  essential  and  inherent  elements  of  a 
balanced  scheme  of  education. 


158 


work,  let  me  give  you  a  few  bints  out  of 
my  own  experience  in  connection  with  the 
Froebel  Academy.  In  the  first  place,  I 
would  advise  you  to  elect  a  board  of  trus- 
tees out  of  your  best  business  men  and  most 
intelligent  women.  There  is  no  spur  to  a 
work  equal  to  a  good  board.  Second,  be- 
come incorporated  as  soon  as  possible ;  for 
to  be  engrafted  on  the  law  gives  a  sense  of 
permanence  which  cannot  be  obtained  in 
any  other  w^ay. 

Third,  engage  no  teacher,  whatever  her 
recommendations,  without  interviewing  her 
personally.  And,  in  this  case,  consider  care- 
fuUj"  the  power  of  personal  influence  upon 
children  as  exerted  by  character,  physical 
health  and  temperamental  moods.  Take  at 
any  time  a  good,  common  -  sense,  large- 
hearted  teacher  of  the  most  old-fashioned 
type  rather  than  a  young  woman  who  has 
made  herself  hysterical  by  superimposing 
the  study  of  the  kindergarten  upon  an  al- 
ready overtaxed  brain. 

Fourth,  as  an  element  of  growth,  establish 
a  system  of  correspondence  with  aud  exam- 
ination of  other  schools.  You  cannot  stop 
with  a  kindergarten.  You  must  grow  with 
the  children.  So  examiue  frankly  the  lines 
of  study  in  the  best  institutions  everywhere, 


that  you  may  establish  yourselves  for  the 
lime  to  come. 

Fifth,  I  would  recommend  a  careful  study 
of  kindergarten  theory.  While  the  material 
part  of  the  system  is,  in  a  limited  sense, 
■well  known,  it  is  not  generally  conceived 
that  the  theory  —  the  philosophy  of  child- 
nature —  is  the  essential  part  of  it.  The 
kindergartner  who  is  skilled  only  in  the 
material  part  of  her  profession  is  one  who 
l)lays  scattered  melodies,  deftly  and  grace- 
fully, perhaps;  but  she  lacks  the  motive 
power  which  should  group  the  rich  harmonic 
chords  of  child-nature.  I  have  said  some- 
where before,  and  I  take  pleasure  in  repeat- 
ing it,  that  the  kindergarten  is  not  a  system 
of  materials,  but  a  system  of  principles.  And 
wo  mothers  usually  look  into  it  at  the 
wrung  end.  We  enter  a  strange  country 
without  a  guide.  If  we  could  only  master  a 
few  principles,  when  we  entered  a  kinder- 
garten— whether  we  saw  game,  or  story,  or 
occupation,  or  gift — it  would  be  intelligible 
to  us  as  taking  its  place  in  the  scheme  we 
have  in  mind.  Or,  if  it  did  not,  we  should 
be  in  a  position  to  inquire,  Why  not  ?  and 
perhaps  add  a  new  iirinciple  to  our  list,  or 
even  be  bold  enough  to  doubt  if  what  we 
see  represents  any  principle  at  all. 


I  may  here,  since  I  am  talking  to  mothers, 
say  a  word  in  their  private  ear.  In  every 
movement  in  which  men  and  women  arc  as- 
sociated, while  the  men  give  us  material 
success  added  to  the  indispensable  elemeuts 
of  integrity  and  judgment,  yet  the  scope  of 
the  work  is  narrow  and  cramped  or  hroad 
and  expansive  according  to  the  impulse  of 
the  women.  Money  does  not  count  for  every- 
thing. The  real  thing  which  tells  in  any 
public  enterprise  is  that  intelligent  and  gen- 
uine sympathy  which  shows  itself  in  per- 
sonal co-operation  with  its  work,  and  thought- 
ful consideration  of  the  plans  proposed.  And, 
as  a  rule,  the  proportion  in  which  a  man 
shows  this  sympathy  indicates  the  height  at 
Avhich  his  wife  keeps  the  thermometer. 

Again,  be  independent.  Criticize  the  kin- 
dergarten. Ask  if  the  lines  of  its  drawing 
are  too  fine  and  restricted,  if  certain  com- 
binations of  color  try  the  eyes,  if  the  use  of 
the  piano  is  good,  if  too  large  a  class  is  irri- 
tating to  children  of  sensitive  nerves,  if  the 
family  grouping  of  six  or  eight  is  better. 
Auy thing  in  the  shape  of  a  question  is  good 
for  the  kindergarten  and  good  for  you. 

And,  in  the  name  of  all  patriotism,  have 
the  spirit  of  a  champion  for  your  city.  The 
signal  for  the  great  race  of  educational  re- 


161 


form  has  sounded  clearl}'  through  all  the 
country.  These  two  cities,  Brooklyn  and 
New  York,  like  lazy  young  athletes,  seem  to 
be  almost  deaf  to  the  cries  of  their  backers; 
Philadelphia  is  following  on  the  heels  of 
steady  Boston  ;  the  lithe  young  West  has 
outstripped  us  from  the  start.  Where  are 
the  men  and  women  who  will  see  to  it  that 
Jamaica  comes  in  on  the  home-run  ? 

Finally,  since  there  is  but  one  answer  to 
the  question.  Can  any  good  thing  come  out 
of  Nazareth?  and  that  is.  Come  and  see,  let 
me  ask  you  to  visit  your  kindergarten  fre- 
quently. But  I  beg  of  you  to  look  with 
open  and  candid  eyes.  Do  not  come  warped 
with  prejudice  in  favor  of  something  old, 
neither  ready  to  be  swept  away  by  some- 
thing new.  Let  us  all  think  only  and  purely 
and  clearly  of  the  ^'  Little  Child  "  who  leads 
us;  and  let  us  do  humbly  and  reverently 
our  part  towards  refulfiUing  that  old  proph- 
ecy which,  like  all  truth,  repeats  itself 
through  successive  ages  in  new  and  living- 
forms. 
11 


THE   KINDERGARTEN   IN  THE  MOTH- 
ER'S WORK* 

BY  MRS.  ELIZABETH   POWELL  BOND. 

"  The  Lord  caimot  be  everywhere,  so  He 
made  motliers." 

This  statement,  attributed  to  a  Jewish 
rabbi,  although  it  be  a  poetic  rather  than  a 
scientific  statement,  conveys  to  us  the  scope 
of  the  motlier's  calling.  She  stands,  in  very 
truth,  the  handmaid  of  the  Lord,  called  to 
His  holy  of  holies  to  work  out  His  law  of 
creation.  Alas,  that  this  holy  office  should 
ever  be  degraded !  Alas,  that  the  ignorance 
and  thoughtlessness  of  the  world  should  rob 
this  sacred  service  of  its  sanctity,  and  make 
it  to  be  held  of  less  account  than  the  har- 
vest of  grain  or  the  return  from  orchard  and 
vineyard  1 

A  thoughtful  woman  once  said  to  me: 
"  I  wonder  that  any  woman  dares  to  be- 

*  A  paper  read  before  the  Kindergarten  Department 
of  the  National  Associatiou  of  Teachers  at  Saratoga. 


come  a  mother,  tbat  she  dares  to  think  that 
her  child  will  thauk  her  for  the  gift  of  life." 
It  is  a  fearful  responsibility,  iiuleed,  to  create 
another  being,  who  must  accept  life  with  all 
its  limitations  and  possibilities,  its  weeping 
and  its  gladness,  its  failures  and  its  suc- 
cesses. The  woman  may  well  jiause  where 
"  angels  would  fear  to  tread !"  To  dwell 
npon  the  responsibility  alone  would  pre- 
clude motherhood.  But  since  she  is  ap- 
pointed of  the  Lord  to  stand  in  His  creative 
place,  this  law  of  her  being  asserts  itself 
above  the  crushing  sense  of  responsibility; 
and  love,  hope,  and  faith  find  fruition  in 
her  child. 

In  Longfellow's  noble  drama  Micliael  An- 
gel o  says : 

"In  every  block  of  marble 
I  see  a  statue— see  it  as  distinctly 
As  if  it  stood  before  me  shaped  and  perfect 
In  attitude  and  action.     I  have  only 
To  hew  away  the  stone  walls  that  imprison 
The  lovely  apparition,  and  reveal  it 
To  other  gyes  as  mine  already  see  it." 

Very  different  from  the  creative  work  of 
the  sculptor  is  that  of  the  mother.  The 
beautiful,  passive  marble  stands  before  him 
absolutely  subject  to  his  strokes.  He  may 
carve  to-day  a  rude  outline  of  the  ''lovely 


164 


apparitioD,"  aud  tlieu  may  turu  away  for 
mouths  aud  years,  aud  still  the  uufiuished 
statue  waits  patieutly  the  returu  of  his  shap- 
ing haud,  of  his  unerring  mallet,  that  shall 
transform  it  from  the  block  of  stone  to  the 
almost  animate  image  of  a  god.  The  ex- 
j>ectant  mother,  having  placed  her  owu  life 
in  the  balance,  receives  into  her  arms  her 
tiuy  babe.  More  helpless  it  is,  this  minia- 
ture man  or  woman,  than  the  young  creat- 
ures whose  bodies  bound  their  ueeds  and 
capabilities ;  but  passive  like  marble  it  never 
is.  The  very  elements  of  marble  she  could 
lay  bare  before  her.  But  in  her  arms  is  this 
living,  breathing  statuette,  Avhose  being  is 
all  a  mystery  to  her,  aud  which  she  has  yet 
undertaken  to  work  upou  as  the  sculptor 
works  upou  his  clay.  The  fashioning  haud 
of  law  has  already  touched  it.  In  the  si- 
lence aud  darkness  of  its  pre-natal  life  un- 
seen aud  incalculable  forces  have  wrought 
upou  it.  The  unwritten  law  of  the  mother's 
being  and  of  the  father's  being  have  worked 
together  or  against  each  other  in  moulding 
their  child.  And  they  have  brought  forth 
a  new  creature  whose  like  is  not  to  be  found 
'^in  all  the  wide  earth's  ample  round."  The 
mother  knows  not  absolutely  the  law  of  her 
owu  being  or  of  the  father's  ;  much  less  can 


165 


she  foresee  the  product  of  these  unknown 
forces  acting  on  each  other.  Not  less  mys- 
terious, then,  than  the  "Man  with  the  Iron 
Mask"  is  this  helpless,  silent  little  creature, 
who  for  a  whole  year  has  "  no  language  but 
a  cry  "  in  which  to  plead  for  the  righting  of 
its  wrongs,  or  a  gracious  smile  betokening 
ease  or  response  to  looks  of  love. 

The  creative  work  of  the  mother  has  been 
accomplished,  and  now  she  must  devote  her- 
self to  the  nurture  and  guidance  of  her  child. 
And  let  me  say  that  I  shall  allow  myself  the 
privilege  of  considering  my  theme  from  the 
stand-point  of  ideal  motherhood  as  I  conceive 
it ;  for  is  it  not  best  to  keep  our  faces  turned 
towards  the  ideal  ?  And  not  for  one  moment 
do  I  enter  into  judgment  upon  the  over- 
burdened mother  whose  life  must  be  a  con- 
tinual struggle  against  poverty,  or  that  other 
mother  whose  fate  is  still  more  sad  in  find- 
ing the  greatest  obstacle  to  her  work  in  the 
father  of  her  child.  But  let  that  mother 
give  thanks  morning  and  evening  whose 
creative  work  of  motherhood  has  been  ac- 
complished in  an  atmosphere  of  sustaining 
sympathy,  and  whose  physical  strength  has 
never  been  taxed  at  the  expense  of  her  child. 
That  mother  begins  her  work  of  nurture 
and  guidance  with  every  human  advantage. 


Wliilc  tbe  law  of  heredity  cannot  be  formu- 
lated, indeed  seems  to  be  i>ast  finding  out, 
we  cannot  doubt  that  that  child  is  best 
equipped  for  life  whose  inheritance  is  a 
harmonious,  well-balanced  nature,  whose 
chances  for  physical  health  are  good,  and 
who  takes  his  x)lace  in  the  world,  not  with 
the  hesitancy  and  timidity  of  an  unbidden 
guest,  but  ^Yith  the  happy  assurance  that  he 
comes  to  his  own  place — a  place  that  waits 
for  him  and  no  other. 

The  first  years  of  the  child's  life  must  be 
given  largely  to  his  physical  nurture.  Good 
teeth,  good  stomach,  sound  flesh,  stout  mus- 
cles, steady  nerves  —  these  are  the  instru- 
ments of  this  present  life,  and  it  is  of  the 
utmost  importance  that  these  be  secured  to 
the  child.  And  they  do  not  come  in  a  hap- 
hazard, matter-of-course  ^yay.  They  need 
the  direct,  personal  supervision  of  the  moth- 
er. She  may  have  the  help  of  paid  service 
in  doing  some  of  the  details  of  this  work, 
but  she  must  herself  give  her  mind  to  it,  to 
select  the  food  best  suited  to  the  body's 
growth,  and  to  provide  it  at  proper  and 
regular  intervals;  to  make  the  dress  suita- 
ble for  the  best  protection  of  the  body  and 
the  development  of  the  muscles ;  to  secure 
healthful,  nerve-strengthening  sleep.     She 


167 


can  buy  for  money  the  service  of  cook,  par- 
lor-maid, or  seamstress;  she  can  delegate  to 
the  childless,  for  the  time  being,  her  society 
duties,  and  she  can  intermit  for  a  brief  sea- 
son her  own  intellectual  pursuits,  rather 
than  trust  to  hired  service  her  baby's  ph^^si- 
cal  nurture.  Is  it  a  hard  thing  to  require 
of  the  mother  that  she  shall  devote  herself 
so  closelj"  to  her  child  ?  Let  her  remember 
that  motherhood  is  her  business  now!  She 
has  had  her  school-life,  she  has  had  society, 
she  has  had  literature,  she  has  had  wifehood 
— now  she  is  a  mother,  pledged  by  the  sa- 
creduess  and  the  infinite  import  of  this  new 
calling  to  self-abnegation,  to  the  highest  good 
of  the  child  to  whom  she  stands  as  creat  >r 
and  providence!  And,  besides,  how  short 
is  the  time  of  this  close  devotion  of  the 
mother!  Only  a  few  years,  and  so  quickly 
tlowu,  and  the  self-  dependent  life  of  the 
child  begins,  and  then  the  mother  may  go 
back  to  her  queenship  in  society,  all  the 
more  a  queen ;  or  she  may  take  up  her  books, 
or  her  pen,  enlarged  and  -enriched  in  nature 
by  the  deep  experiences  of  motherhood. 

But  it  is  not  to  the  physical  needs  alone 
that  the  mother  must  so  closely  devote  her- 
self. The  spirit  begins  to  assert  itself  almost 
with  the  first  breath,  and  along  with  the  work 


168 


of  nnrtnre  must  be  taken  up  the  work  of  guid- 
ance. At  this  point  a  fatal  mistake  is  often 
made.  The  very  lielidessuess  of  the  baby- 
so  appeals  to  the  mother's  tenderness  and 
pity  that  she  is  thrown  off  her  guard,  and 
sometimes  forgets  that  a  most  important 
part  of  her  office  is  to  train  this  daily  unfuUl- 
ing  human  plantlet — to  control  this  "small 
despot,''  as  Emerson  names  the  baby,  and  of 
Avhom  he  graphically  says  that  he  "  asks  so 
little  that  all  nature  and  all  reason  are  on 
his  side.  His  ignorance  is  more  charming 
than  all  knowledge,  and  his  little  sins  more 
bewitching  than  any  virtue.  .  .  .  The  small 
enchanter  nothing  can  withstand — no  sen- 
iority of  age,  no  gravity  of  character:  un- 
cles, aunts,  grandsires,  grandames — all  fall 
an  easy  prey ;  he  conforms  to  nobody ;  all 
caper,  and  make  mouths,  and  babble,  and 
chirrup  to  him.  On  the  strongest  shoulders 
he  rides,  and  pulls  the  hair  of  laurelled 
heads."  The  little  sins  of  the  little  baby 
are  bewitching  indeed,  as  Emerson  declares ; 
but  the  mother  must  protect  herself  against 
their  enchantment,  for  they  are  insidious, 
and,  growing  with  the  growth  of  the  baby, 
soon  cease  to  be  little  sins,  and  change  to 
fixed  habits  that  endanger  the  peace  of  the 
child  and  all  connected  with  him.     I  have 


169 


heard  a  mother  mourn  that  her  hoy  of  twelve 
could  uot  he  depended  upon.  She  could  not 
trust  him  to  do  an  errand  that  required 
prompt  execution,  aud  all  attempts  to  direct 
his  study  or  his  play,  or  to  engage  him  in 
regular  work,  were  utter  failures.  It  was 
plain  to  see  that  this  mother  had  never  taken 
up  the  leadership — that  she  had  always  du- 
tifully followed  the  cry  of  the  infant,  the 
wilful  outbursts  of  the  little  hoy  ;  and  now 
she  was  absolutely  helpless  before  this  uu- 
disciplined,  self  -  asserting  child  of  twelve. 
If  the  year-old  baby  has  acquired  the  leader- 
ship, alas  for  the  mother,  and  alas,  too,  for 
the  baby!  She  will  uever  overtake  him  or 
outrank  him. in  authority.  She  must  begin 
almost  with  the  first  cry  of  her  little  one  to 
assert  herself  as  its  guide — to  decide  upon 
the  general  course  of  its  develox^ment.  She 
need  uot  make  a  procrusteau  programme  of 
action,  but  she  should  work  to  an  elastic 
plan  that  will  suit  itself  to  the  hour's  needs. 
She  must  begin  very  early  gently  to  prac- 
tise him  in  self-control,  in  regularity  of  ac- 
tion. The  superabundant  egoism  of  this 
"royal  guest,"  who  feels  that  ''  all  the  earth 
is  his,  and  all  the  fulness  thereof,"  must  be 
brought  face  to  face  with  the  egoism  of 
other  royal  guests,  and  so  made  to  know 


170 


its  liiiiitatious.  To  do  all  this — and  this  is 
the  fai-reachiiig  work  of  the  mother  during 
the  infancy  of  her  child — requires  that  moth- 
er-love have  iu  it  an  element  of  heroism,  of 
Spartan  firmness,  that  shall  carry  her  calmly 
and  triumphantly  through  the  storms  of  in- 
fant passion  that  may  burst  without  warn- 
ing upon  her;  that  shall  enable  her  to  sacri- 
fice the  child's  momentary  pleasure  to  his 
future  good,  A  bright  woman,  not  herself 
a  mother,  however,  was  once  heard  to  say: 
''  I  believe  aunts  are  a  great  deal  better  for 
children  than  their  mothers,  because  the 
mother  always  wishes  to  let  the  child  have 
his  own  wjiy,  while  the  aunt  does  not  cou- 
sider  this  in  the  least." 

This  brings  me  to  the  second  part  of  my 
thenje — the.  help  that  the  mother  may  find 
in  her  work  from  the  well-conducted  kinder- 
garten. At  the  age  of  throe  the  time  of 
babyhood  may  be  said  to  have  i)assed  and 
the  period  of  childhood  begun.  The  little 
one  has  accomplished  two  most  ditlicult 
things :  lie  has  mastered  his  feeble,  stum- 
bling feet  and  brought  them  to  a  firm  step; 
he  has  broken  the  silence  of  his  first  year's 
life  and  now  speaks  the  speech  of  father 
and  mother,  literally  reproducing  the  words, 
well  or  ill  spoken,  that  he  hears  about  him. 


171 


He  is  keenly  alive  at  every  point.  His  eyes 
are  quick  to  see  the  wonders  and  the  glories 
about  him,  his  ears  catch  every  new  sound, 
his  hands  grasp  every  instrument  that  af- 
fords expression  to  his  activity.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  good  physical  habits  have  been 
established,  and  it  is  also  to  be  honied  that 
the  devoted  mother  has  been  able  so  to 
shape  the  gradually  unfolding  mental  pow- 
ers that  they  have  acquired  right  directions 
of  growth.  Now  he  is  ready  to  begin  in 
earnest  his  systematic  training  for  life. 
Since  he  is  not  to  live  an  isolated  life,  but 
must  take  his  place  with  his  fellows,  to  work 
as  one  force  among  many  forces,  his  educa- 
tion can  best  go  on  from  this  point,  in  the 
society  of  his  jieers,  along  witli  other  little 
ones  who  have  reached  the  same  degree  of 
development.  Now  the  kindergarten  opens 
its  doors  to  hiin,  to  co-operate  with  the  moth- 
er, to  supplement  her  work,  to  lead  him  gen- 
tly and  safely  along  the  pathway  in  which 
mother -love  and  wisdom  have  started  his 
footsteps.  Let  me  quote  from  Mr.  Hailmann, 
who  says  that  "  the  kindergarten  is  not  a 
mere  ingenious  contrivance,  invented  for 
the  purpose  of  amusing  little  children  in- 
structively and  of  relieving  the  indolent  or 
over-burdened  mothers  of  troublesome  em- 


172 


bryo  snflferers,  but  a  2)lan  of  education  that 
has  its  roots  far  down  in  child-nature,  and 
that  shelters  beneath  its  branches  strong, 
ripe  men  and  women.  It  is  not  a  mere  cun- 
ning insertion  between  the  nursery  and  the 
school,  intended  to  train  up  the  raw  material 
for  the  wisdom-factories,  but  a  full  scheme 
of  education  that  is  to  load  the  human  being 
from  birth  to  maturity  on  the  road  of  a  wise 
and  useful  activity  to  the  goal  of  true  hap- 
piness." 

Now,  for  a  few  hours  each  day,  the  mother 
trusts  her  little  one  to  the  guidance  of  the 
kiudergartner,  who  must  be  a  woman  of 
gentle  and  also  heroic  nature,  profoundly 
tutored  in  the  philosophy  of  education.  She 
greets  the  child  with  smiling  face  and  with 
that  courtesy  which  she  wishes  should  grace 
his  intercourse  with  others.  She  takes  him 
out  of  his  isolation  and  leads  him  into  a  cir- 
cle of  little  ones,  his  peers — a  new  experience 
to  him — and  she  teaches  him  how  to  live 
with  them.  He  finds  himself  with  ten  or 
twenty  other  children,  all  wishing  the  best 
place,  or  the  sweetest  flower,  or  to  choose 
the  morning  song.  She  gently  and  patient- 
ly shows  him  how  to  give  np  his  own  wish 
when  others  should  have  the  choice  (a  les- 
son, is  it  not,  in  citizenship  in  a  reiniblic  ?), 


173 


and  uot  only  to  surrender  his  owu  wish, 
but  to  enter  heartily  iuto  the  joy  of  his 
fellows  iu  choosing.  She  teaches  him  iu  a 
thousand  ways  that 

"All  are  needed  by  each  one; 
Nothing  is  fair  or  good  alone." 

She  makes  song  the  medium  of  many  les- 
sons to  him.  By  the  happy  aid  of  the  imagi- 
nation he  flies  with  the  bird  as  he  sings,  he 
nestles  under  the  protecting  branches  of  the 
trees,  he  gathers  nuts  with  the  squirrels,  he 
grinds  the  flour  with  the  miller,  he  mows  the 
grass  with  the  farmer,  or  he  drives  the  nails 
with  the  carpenter.  He  learns  the  colors  and 
odors  of  flowers.  He  grows  to  be  hail-fellow 
with  caterpillars  and  turtles.  He  is  brought 
close  to  the  heart  of  nature  throngh  this  lov- 
ing familiarity  with  her  varied  forms,  and  all 
the  years  of  his  life  will  thereby  be  enriched 
and  gladdened.  And  these  songs  will  be  so 
many  seed-grains  in  his  soul,  to  mature  in 
due  season  as  they  sing  themselves  over  and 
over  to  him,  and  fructify  in  forms  that  we 
cannot  foretell.  He  is  trained  to  move  with 
music.  This  not  only  cultivates  ease  and 
grace  of  bodily  movement,  but  it  directly  ex- 
ercises the  will-power  to  hold  the  action  of 
the  muscles  to  the  time  of  the  music.     The 


hand,  that  woudeifnl  instrumeut  of  human 
activity,  is  from  the  begiuning  restrained 
from  destructiveuess  and  trained  to  serv  ice. 
The  needle,  the  peucil,  and  the  uiodelliug- 
kuife  are  the  tools  with  which  the  hand  is 
directed  by  the  mind  towards  definite  results. 
The  eye  becomes  skilled  in  the  comparison 
and  measurement  of  objects.  To-day's  oc- 
cupations are  the  natural  successors  of  yes- 
terday's achievements,  and  are  carefully 
chosen  as  preparatory  to  tlie  work  for  to- 
morrow. It  is  only  in  thus  associating  with 
other  children  that  the  moral  nature  can  be 
harmoniously  developed.  It  is  this  associa- 
tion with  others  that  calls  out  selfishness  or 
generosity,  that  trains  him  to  be  just  to  their 
claims, that  strengthens  him  in  self-restraint, 
that  stimulates  his  helpfulness. 

In  this  brief  outline  I  have  indicated  the 
threefold  nature  of  the  kindergartner's  work 
with  the  child  as  supplemental  to  the  moth- 
er's work.  It  is  directed  towards  his 
healthful  physical  development;  in  accord- 
ance with  the  laws  of  mind  it  directs  his 
mental  growth,  and  his  moral  nature  is  care- 
fully stimulated  aud  nurtured.  As  illustra- 
tive of  my  subject,  let  me  add  a  few  notes 
that  I  have  been  privileged  to  select  from  a 
kindergartner's  note-book,  a  record  kept  only 


175 


for  ber  own  use,  but  kindly  placed  at  my 
service  : 

"This  morning  M grew  (juite  angry 

over  his  work  because  he  could  not  do  it  at 
once;  almost  frautic — twitched  and  kicked, 
stiifening  his  limbs.  I  told  him  to  go  into 
the  dressing-room  by  himself,  and  to  come 
back  to  us  just  as  soon  as  he  was  over  his 
bad  feelings.  He  came  out  in  about  two 
minntes,  smiling,  and  went  to  work  as  if 
nothing  had  happened." 

*'  Was  so  pleased  to-day  to  see  what  con- 
trol S had  over  his  eyelids  under  trying 

circnmstances.  He,  with  others,  had  been 
requested  to  close  them  on  account  of  too 
much  noise  from  that  qnarter.  Just  then, 
or  soon  after,  Miss  E came  in  with  a  tur- 
tle, which  she  allow^ed  to  crawl  over  the 
floor,  much  to  the  children's  delight.     They 

made   demonstrations,  so  that  S knew 

that  something  unusual  was  going  on  in  the 
room,  but  he  did  not  move  his  eyelids." 

"A  little  boy  brought  his  drawing-book 
to  me  to  have  me  rub  out  some  poor  work 
he  had  done ;  said,  as  he  handed  it  to  me,  in 
a  wise  and  apologetic  way,  "that  his  eyes 
were  a  little  out  of  sight  when  he  did  that.'  " 

"' During  the  morning  sing  to-day,  when 


176 

all  were  assembled,  two  turtles,  a  large  and 
a  small  one,  were  brought  in  for  the  chil- 
clren  to  look  at.  The  turtles  crawled  about, 
going  towards  some  children.  Not  one  was 
frightened ;  but  all  were  delighted,  and 
laughed  aloud." 

"  Was  talking  to  K alone  on  Friday 

about  telling  the  truth  and  owning  when 
he  had  done  wrong,  instead  of  denying  it,  as 
he  usually  does.  To-day  he  was  put  to  the 
test,  and  conquered  himself  by  confessing 
Ijromptly  when  questioned." 

To  those  notes  of  the  kindergartner  let 
me  add,  also,  some  of  the  points  of  the  replies 
Avhicli  I  have  received  to  my  personal  inquiry 
of  mothers,  "  What  help  have  you  had  from 
the  kindergarten  in  your  work  with  your 
children  ?" — ''The  love  of  flowers  instilled 
into  the  children."  "The  lessons  in  man- 
ners, the  habits  of  punctuality  and  regular- 
ity." "The  happiness  of  the  children." 
"The  habit  of  working  or  playing  to  a  plan, 
the  concentration  of  the  mind  upon  one 
thing  at  a  time,  the  habits  of  order."  "  Tlie 
exactness  of  the  children  in  measuring  lines 
with  the  eye."  "  Their  knowledge  of  birds." 
"  The  ease  with  which  the  little  girls  use  a 
ueedle."     "  The  ability  to  occui)y  themselves 


177 


at  home  in  kindergarteQ  ways."  "  The  cul- 
tivation of  generosity."  "  The  practice  of 
apx^ealing  to  the  child's  reason,  which  makes 
it  easy  to  govern  him."  These  replies  are 
from  mothers  who  have  had  one,  two,  or 
three  children  carried  through  the  four  years' 
course  of  kindergarten  training.  It  seems 
to  me  they  cover  every  point  claimed  for  this 
training.  No  criticism  has  reached  me  di- 
rectly from  mothers,  but  I  have  heard  in  one 
or  two  instances  of  this  complaint:  "Since 
my  child  has  been  in  the  kindergarten  he  is 
a  great  deal  more  troublesome."  I  learned 
that  this  complaint  was  made  of  children 
who  had  been  alone  up  to  the  kindergarten 
age,  and  probably  their  association  with 
other  children  bad  brought  out  some  traits 
which  the  mother  had  had  no  chance  to  dis- 
cover before.  It  may  be  that  they  were  only 
confirmations  of  the  need  of  the  child  to  be 
trained  to  live  with  his  fellows. 

But  I  think  it  probable  that  there  are 
some  children  too  delicatel^^  organized  to 
bear  the  excitement  of  a  large  kindergarten, 
who  could  not  endure  the  nervous  strain  of 
three  hours  in  the  stimulating  society  of  a 
large  number  of  children.  And  there  is  still 
another  point  that  must  give  some  solicitude 
to  conscientious  mothers.     Little  ones  care- 

12 


fully  unitniecl  at  home  are  exposed  to  tlie 
danger  of  coutamiuatiou  when  they  associate 
Avith  children  from  homes  in  which  vulgar 
influences  prevail.  However  great  the  care 
of  the  kiudergartner  to  protect  from  this 
danger,  the  rough  word  will  sometimes  reach 
the  unaccustomed  ear,  and  the  rtule  action 
startle  the  gentle  child,  or  be  reproduced  by 
the  very  susceptible  one.  But  in  my  opinion 
the  risk  is  overbalanced  by  the  greater  dan- 
ger that  threatens  the  children  who  must  be 
reared  in  isolation. 

One  word  is  to  be  said  of  the  help  which 
the  mother  may  gain  to  herself  from  her  re- 
lation to  the  wise  kiudergartner.  If  she  be 
a  thoughtless,  undisciplined  mother  —  and 
there  are  such  in  every  stratum  of  society — 
the  life  of  her  child  in  the  kindergarten  may 
be  the  "new  birth"  to  herself;  it  may  be 
a  revelation  undreamed-of  of  the  sacred- 
uess  of  her  work  as  mother.  If  she  be  an 
ideal  mother,  she  has  now  the  co-operation 
of  one  whose  consecration  to  the  develop- 
ment of  child-nature  makes  her  second  only 
to  the  mother  herself  in  her  interest  in  the 
child,  and  from  the  two  standpoints  of 
mother  and  kiudergartner  they  can  study 
the  perplexing  problems  that  are  sure  to 
arise  in  the   course  of  the  child's  develop- 


179 


ment.  The  kinclergartner  is  likely  to  have 
this  advantage  over  the  mother,  that  her 
training  has  led  her  to  look  deeply  into  the 
philosophy  of  ednc:\tion,  and  so  to  look  with 
a  larger  charity  npon  the  child,  and  to  see 
in  what  the  mother  grieves  over  as  naughti- 
ness only  the  crudity  which  time  will  cor- 
rect, Ou  the  other  hand,  the  kindergartner 
may  discover  really  evil  tendencies  which 
had  escaped  the  mother,  and  which  call  for 
their  combined  efforts  to  overcome.  Tbus 
she  will  find  in  the  kindergartner  consoler 
and  counsellor;  indeed,  each  will  support 
the  other  in  their  united  work  to  secure  for 
the  child  a  harmonious  development  of  his 
nature,  to  direct  his  outlook  upward  and  his 
footsteps  forward  towards  ideal  manhood  or 
womanhood. 

And  the  mother,  as  handmaid  of  the  Lord, 
finds  in  the  consecrated  kindergartner  a  fel- 
low-worker in  the  garden  of  the  Lord. 


OUTGROWTHS    OF   KINDERGARTEN 
TRAINING.* 

BY   MRS.  A.  B.   LONGSTREET. 

In  our  discussion  of  the  kiudergarteu,  we 
have  dealt  with  theories  and  methods,  with 
principles  aud  practice,  with  the  actual  pres- 
ent workings  of  the  Froebel  idea.  You  will 
pardon  me,  therefore,  and  I  trust  that  you 
will  not  think  that  I  go  too  far  afield,  if  I 
devote  the  time  you  have  so  kindly  allotted 
me  to  a  consideration  of  the  value  of  the 
Froebelian  training  in  after  years.  I  wash 
especially  to  speak  of  the  economic,  aesthetic, 
aud  moral  uses  to  girls  and  women  of  hand- 
work. 

The  influence  of  the  mind  over  the  body 
has  always  been  acknowledged;  but  the 
power  of  the  body  over  the  mind  has  until 
very  recently  been  unconsidered  or  largely 
underrated.  Brain  powder  and  physical  force 
in   human   beings '  ought   to   balance   each 

*  An  address  read  before  a  Woman's  Club  in  the  course 
of  an  educational  discussion. 


181 


other;  and  in  properly  developed  men  and 
women  they  do.  That  women  are  less  ro- 
bnst  than  men  is  as  easily  accounted  for  as 
that  one  hand  is  usually  stronger  and  more 
dexterous  than  the  other.  A  child  may  be 
born  with  more  power  in  one  hand  than  in 
the  other,  but  this  is  merely  a  marked  proof 
of  heredity,  and  not  common.  As  a  proof  of 
the  influence  of  training,  or  of  mind  over 
matter,  we  notice  that  when  a  person  uses 
to  a  great  extent  the  strength  and  skill  of 
the  right  hand,  the  left  foot  is  larger  than 
the  right,  and  can  be  depended  upon  longer 
as  a  support  than  its  fellow.  This  develop- 
ment, which  is  Nature's  method  of  preserv- 
ing a  balance  of  power  and  poise  of  person, 
may  be  called  physical  equilibrium,  aud 
there  is  a  similar  relation  between  the  brain 
aud  the  hands, 

Superior  force,  skill  or  orderliness  in  hand- 
icraft is  sure  to  be  attended  by  a  well-fur- 
nished and  orderly  mind.  Xot  that  the  intel- 
lect always  has  had  or  even  needs  a  regular 
school  training  ;  but  it  has  had  self-direction 
by  some  systematic  method  that  may  have 
been  original  with  itself.  That  such  meth- 
odical improvement  is  possible  by  means  of 
self- teaching  and  self-guidance  cannot  be 
denied  by  any  one  who  has  had  the  good- 


182 


fortnue  to  draw  out  and  discover  tbe 
thoughts,  opinions,  and  attainments  of  some 
master  -  mechanic  who  has  had  practically 
no  schooling.  In  such  a  man  will  be  found 
a  mine  of  valuable  intelligence  and  original 
thought ;  and  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that 
had  this  self-instructed  man  acquired  his 
education  by  less  difficult  and  devious  ways, 
lie  would  hare  reached  the  height  of  fame, 
or,  better  still,  have  attained  the  x)erfection 
of  usefulness  to  his  kind. 

The  value  of  hand-training  for  women  has 
only  lately  come  to  be  recognized ;  but  the 
discovery  is  arousing  a  deep  and  broad  en- 
thusiasm that  expresses  itself  in  many  ways 
and  in  all  grades  of  life,  from  the  child  who 
is  to  become  the  future  bread-winner  up  to 
the  rich  woman  of  society.  Little  girls, 
grown  girls,  and  matrons  are  finding  pleas- 
ure, health,  and  usefulness  in  hand-training. 
The  colleges  have  opened  a  vista  of  the 
highest  possibilities  in  the  development  of 
the  brain  forces  of  woman.  They  have  pre- 
pared her  to  enter  well-equipped  into  almost 
any  field  of  intellectual  and  administrative 
work ;  and,  to  keep  her  physically  in  good 
condition,  gymnasiums,  directed  by  profes- 
sors of  health-culture,  have  been  provided. 
This  college  training  fits  women  for  profes- 


sious  that  require  disciplined  and  well-stored 
miuds,  but  it  provides  them  no  especial  hand 
culture,  if  instrumental  music  and  the  rep- 
resentative and  plastic  arts  be  excepted. 
Among  the  professions  for  which  woman's 
colleges  are  fitting  her  are  analytical  chem- 
istry, landscape  gardening,  and  agriculture, 
the  practice  of  medicine,  various  branches 
of  literary  work,  conveyancing,  notarial 
work,  etc.,  not  to  mention  the  higher  grades 
of  teaching.  But  this  training,  even  with 
the  aid  of  skilfully  directed  gymnastics,  has 
not  set  her  upon  firm  feet  and  given  her 
perfect  health  and  that  robust  endurance 
which  a  wise  combination  of  handicraft  with 
brain  discipline  is  sure  to  produce. 

But,  not  considering  the  uses  of  hand- 
training  in  strengthening  the  muscles  and 
maintaining  the  health,  we  must  reflect  that 
it  opens  up  to  woman  many  remunerative 
occupations  that  have  hitherto  been  closed 
to  her,  or  at  least  deemed  wholly  unsuited 
to  her  strength.  It  is  now  freely  admitted 
by  the  highest  authorities  on  female  educa- 
tion (although  but  latelj'  strenuously  denied 
by  them)  that  the  term  "  higher  education," 
as  applied  to  women,  means  a  well-rounded 
development  of  every  force  that  goes  to 
make  up  her  personality.     The  education  of 


the  bands,  eyes,  and  feet ;  the  pose  and  flexi- 
bility of  the  body,  which  iucliidos  its  full 
perfection  of  form,  grace,  and  color,  and  the 
method  of  breathing  and  of  motion  are  now 
intimately  associated  with  the  ordinary  pro- 
cesses of  intellectual  growth  ;  and  mechani- 
cal skill,  in  one  or  in  many  crafts,  is  made  a 
strong  aid  to  the  acquirement  of  knowledge. 
Indeed,  while  learning  to  do  one  thing  with 
the  hands,  we  acquire  much  skill  iu  mauy 
other  occupations  or  amusements,  not  to 
mention  the  fact  that  we  gain  au  exact 
knowledge  of  cost,  value,  weight,  endurance, 
flexibility,  adaptability,  and  dimensions  of 
things,  and  many  useful  and  interesting 
facts  regarding  objects  hitherto  unconsid- 
ered or  greatly  neglected. 

It  is  the  far-off  and  mysterious  that  has 
too  much  engrossed  the  interest  of  clever 
women  hitherto;  but  they  are  now  begin- 
ning to  apply  their  imagination  and  their 
manual  skill  to  practical  matters.  Handi- 
craft trains  the  muscles  and  the  perceptive 
faculties  of  women  to  a  delicate  manipula- 
tive ijroficiency  that  proves  of  immense 
value  to  the  industries  generally  and  to  her 
own  talents  in  particular.  A  little  later, 
training  of  the  hands  will  become  an  indis- 
pensable necessity  to  all  competitive  work- 


1H5 


ers,  both  in  tlie  arts  and  in  industrial  pm- 
snits.  Iiulecd,  these  two  are  drawing  very 
near  together,  since  the  crafts  are  now  be- 
ing taken  i\\t  by  persons  of  the  iinest  in- 
herited gifts  and  hugest  intellectual  acijnire- 
nieuts.  No  matter  what  a  person's  natural 
talents  may  be,  au  intelligent  training  of 
the  hands  has  become  absolutely  necessary 
to  the  performance  of  all  skilled  work,  as 
well  as  to  the  attainment  of  proficiency  iu 
things  only  aBStlietic  or  ornamental.  Theo- 
retic information  and  a  dependence  upon 
memory  will  no  longer  serve  a  manipulator 
in  work  of  any  importance.  Since  the  im- 
mense value  of  habitual  hand-training  and 
the  application  of  the  hands  to  the  develop- 
ment of  all  plans  and  theories  has  been  rec- 
ognized by  scholars,  and  even  by  many  who 
have  hitherto  led  lives  of  luxurious  ease,  a 
wonderful  amount  of  interest  has  been 
evinced  in  every  industry,  and  many  useful 
branches  of  handicraft  that  have  heretofore 
been  overlooked  by  the  learned  and  the  peo- 
ple of  leisure  are  now  being  taken  up  with 
enthusiasm. 

The  good  of  all  this  practical  earnestness 
is  so  extensive  and  wide-spread  that  it  is 
dittieult  to  name  any  one  benefit  as  being 
more  desirable  than  another.     But  one  thing 


is  certaiu,  aixl  that  is  tbat  tlie  imiversal 
traiuiug  of  the  haiuls  to  practical  work, 
and  the  acquirement  of  eclncatiou  as  much 
through  the  sense  of  touch  and  a  master's 
guidauce  of  the  muscular  or  physical  powers 
as  through  the  studying  of  many  books,  in- 
crease the  dignity  of  all  mechanical  labor 
and  add  to  the  growing  respect  for  excel- 
lence in  every  constructive  effort. 

Many  a  girl  graduate  has  hitherto  pre- 
ferred selling  pins  across  a  counter  to  per- 
forming useful  mechanical  labor.  She  has 
considered  it  beneath  her  to  work  with  her 
hands-  For  her  benetit  let  me  say  that  a 
college  of  carpenters  for  University  women 
has  been  established  in  Cambridge,  Eng- 
land, and  that  its  instructors  are  so  pressed 
for  space  at  the  benches,  wheels,  and  lathes 
that  no  student  is  allowed  to  spend  more 
than  half  a  day  in  each  week  at  wood-work- 
ing unless  she  rises  early  to  obtain  an  addi- 
tional hour  on  Saturday  morning,  this  extra 
time  being  invariably  seized  with  eagerness. 
Many  women  are  mentally  equipped  to  do 
excellent  industrial  work.  They  need  only 
opportunity  and  practice,  which  can  be  had 
if  they  set  themselves  properly  about  it. 

Of  course,  the  prejudice  against  manual 
labor  on  the  part  of  man  or  woman  who  has 


w, 


acquired  a  so-rallcd  '' ('(lucatioii  "  will  die 
liaid  and  slowlj'  in  many  proud  and  stub- 
born minds.  But  this  need  not  dishearten 
ns,  when  we  reflect  that  it  is  not  many  cen- 
turies since  the  practice  or  even  the  knowl- 
edge of  penmanship  was  deemed  beneath 
the  notice  of  the  hij;h-born,  being  consid- 
ered in  the  light  of  a  trade.  Scribes  were 
employed  to  write  and  to  read  writing,  and 
they  ranked  with  other  craftsmen,  though 
not  so  high  as  metal-workers,  wood -carv- 
ers, and  the  like.  Frequently  the  same  man 
pursued  the  two  vocations  of  barber  and  of 
writer  or  scribe.  Comparing  the  estimate 
once  placed  upon  a  man  who  could  write, 
and  the  pity  and  even  contempt  now  felt 
for  those  who  cannot  pen  their  own  names, 
it  is  easy  to  perceive  that  the  time  may  not 
bo  far  distant  when  a  woman  -will  be  as 
prond  of  carving  and  mounting  a  dressing- 
table  or  easy  chair,  as  she  now  is  of  having 
embroidered  and  made  up  a  tea-cosy  or  a 
sofa-pillow. 

In  the  tirst  place,  hand  culture,  besides 
making  women  better  scholars,  cleverer 
thinkers,  and  keener  logicians,  and  develop- 
ing their  physi(iue,  evolves  an  additional 
sense — a  sense  that  but  for  this  training 
would  be  wholly  lost  to  the  individual  and 


188-. 


to  the  world.  It  calls  into  more  perfect  use 
both  the  touch  autl  the  sight,  the  latter  rec- 
ogniziug  many  hitherto  unobserved  qualities 
iu  objects,  and  the  former  becoming  quicker 
and  more  sensitive  to  mechanical  faults,  and 
gaining  a  constructiv^e  impulse. 

Girls  manifest  verj^  early  a  tendency  to 
construct  things,  but  this  inclination,  out- 
side the  making  of  the  doll's  wardrobe,  paper 
flowers,  and  similar  trifles,  has  beeu  dis- 
couraged hifclievto.  Now  here  comes  in  one 
of  the  most  important  economic  benelits  of 
the  kindergarten  training.  Girls,  as  well  as 
boys,  weave,  build,  balance,  mould  ;  learn  to 
use  simple  tools ;  to  estimate  form,  size, 
height,  distance,  by  the  eye,  and  to  acquire 
a  beautiful  dexterity  and  precision  of  the 
hand.  But  the  value  of  eveu  this  natural 
method  of  rousing,  quickening,  and  develop- 
ing a  girl's  best  mental  and  mechanical  fac- 
ulties, as  well  as  her  physical  graces  and 
forces,  is  too  commonly  under-estimated  by 
unobservant  or  ignorant  mothers.  To  create 
a  taste,  or  encourage  a  talent  for  construction, 
is  in  the  highest  sense  economic  ;  for  with 
this  faculty  well  and  practically  trained,  the 
girl  graduate  is  prepared  for  self-support 
and  ready  to  maintain  an  honorable  inde- 
pendence, provided   she  has  only   a  small 


189 


cliauce  to  acquire  practical  proficiency.  It 
was  a  recognition  of  this  fact  in  some  conn- 
tries  which  led  the  wealthiest  and  most  ex- 
alted to  endow  their  sons  ami  daughters 
with  trades.  The  old  Duke  Maximilian,  of 
Bavaria,  set  a  fine  examplc,which,  unhappily, 
the  world  has  been  slow  to  follow.  He  ed- 
ucated his  five  sons  aiul  daughters,  not  to 
become  amateurs,  but  to  be  practically  able 
to  earn  their  bread  should  fortune  fail  them; 
and  if  we  may  judge  by  their  portraits,  their 
childhood,  spent  alternately  in  the  work-shop 
and  in  the  school-room,  nuist  have  been  a 
happy  one.  There  was  less  routine  in  their 
lives  than  there  would  have  been  if  books 
only  had  been  their  companions;  and  phy- 
siologists say  that  monotony  is  deadening 
to  the  perceptive  faculties  and  to  hope,  and 
hurtful  to  the  functions  and  growth  of  the 
body. 

When  a  woman  reflects  that  it  is  custom 
that  makes  her  right-handed,  and  that  a  left- 
handed  person  is  quite  rare,  her  mind  con- 
tinues the  reasoning  and  informs  her  that 
she  is  capable  of  far  greater  dexterity  with 
her  hands  than  was  born  with  her.  She  is 
right-lianded  because  the  habit  of  her  an- 
cfstojs  and  the  watchful  care  of  her  mother 
made  her  so;    her  remote  forefathers  held 


190 


tbeir  swords  or  spears  in  the  right  hand,  and 
the  habit  of  right -haudedness  has  been 
transmitted  to  the  present  day.  It  is  said, 
however,  that  such  ailments  as  curvature  of 
the  spiue,  uneven  shonhlers,  &r  unequal  hips 
are  seldom  found  in  persons  who  use  both 
bauds  with  equal  skill.  This  is  explaiued 
by  the  fact  that  when  we  use  the  right  hand 
while  staudiug,  the  body  is  poised  naturally 
upon  the  left  foot,  and  if  this  hand  is  ex- 
ceptionally skilled,  the  other  is  proportion- 
ately incapable;  lience,  in  such  cases  the 
body  seldom  rests  evenly  upon  both  feet, 
and  the  bones  adjust  themselves  to  an  ha- 
bitual one-sided, out-of-plumb  attitude.  Con- 
sidering that  the  body  is  thus  easily  per- 
verted and  misshapen,  those  who  have  the 
care  of  children  cannot  lay  too  much  stress 
upon  handicraft  as  a  means  of  health  and 
fiue  development,  even  though  they  may  not 
perceive  the  effect  such  training  has  upon 
the  mind. 

In  Sweden  the  training  of  the  hands  has 
been  so  successful  that  educators  of  other 
lands  have  gone  thither  to  learn  the  methods 
practised.  In  the  language  of  this  sturdy 
Swedish  race,  handicraft  is  called  "sloyd," 
which  means  clever,  cunning,  handy.  In 
England,  and  in  eastern  American  cities,  the 


101 


introduction  of  luanual  culture  into  the  fam- 
ily school  -  rooms  of  the  rich  has  already 
proved  of  especial  advantage  to  girls,  who 
are  taught  to  use  one  hand  as  skilfully  as 
the  other.  The  women  of  the  family  re- 
ceive instruction  with  the  children,  aiid 
among  the  good  things  the  system  produces 
are  accuracy,  industry,  forethought,  perse- 
verance (it  being  a  fixed  principle  that  what- 
ever is  begun  shall  be  completed),  orderli- 
ness, sympathy  with  workers  in  all  crafts, 
a  marked  development  of  mental  aptitudes 
and  i)hysical  powers,  and  a  noticeable  lessen- 
ing of  recurring  ailments.  Morally,  the  sys- 
tem creates  a  fondness  for  work  in  general 
— honest,  good  work — and  a  feeling  of  com- 
radeship with  others  who  strive  to  create 
anything  in  art  or  industry.  Far  more  po- 
tent than  words  is  work  done  along  kindred 
lines  to  efface  the  suspicion,  hatred,  and 
envy  subsisting  between  employer  and  em- 
ployed, the  rich  and  the  poor. 

Outside  the  moral  uses  of  a  physical  edu- 
cation tending  to  definite  results,  the  learner 
takes  keen  delight  in  noting  the  growth  of 
the  dexterity  of  her  own  hands;  and  this 
satisfaction  is  felt,  whether  the  purpose  of 
training  is  the  learning  of  a  useful  trade  or 
merely  the  satisfaction  ofcreatingsomething. 


192 


Adepts  iu  any  line  of  band- work  are  always 
ready  to  become  instructors,  and  theirs  is 
the  way  to  fortune.  It  is  the  untrained, 
unskilled  woman  who  falls  in  competitive 
struggles,  as  it  is  "  the  woman  without  fac- 
ulty" w4io  is,  to  quote  another  apt  New- 
England  phrase,  "the  shiftless  house-keeper" 
and  the  domestic  sloven. 

The  wood  -  worker  designs  and  draws  a 
pattern  of  the  object  she  intends  to  make, 
and  the  eifect  of  this  process  upon  her  mind 
is  to  enlarge  her  grasp  of  a  fact  that  is  yet 
to  be,  and  to  establish  a  correct  relation  of 
things.  It  is  an  expression  of  her  thoughts 
and  an  interpreter  of  her  purposes,  for  the 
drawing  takes  the  place  of  descriptive  lan- 
guage, and  is  far  clearer  and  more  emphatic. 
Since  statesmen  declare  that  upon  woman 
must  we  depend  to  recoustrnct  from  the 
present  chaotic  social  conditions  something 
worthy  of  our  age,  woman  herself  cannot 
too  early  ponder  how  she  may  so  train  the 
taste,  the  impulses  and  the  scientific  forces 
of  which  she  is  possessed  as  to  make  herself 
capable  of  worthy  werk.  B^^  occupying  her- 
self with  broad  actualities  she  escapes  the 
infliu^nce  of  that  impractical  sentimentalism 
which  in  the  past  has  destroyed  her  high- 
est possibilities.    Sentimentality  is  to  every- 


193 


day  life  what  superstition  and  ignorant 
inejndice  are  to  cliaracter,  while  sentiment 
is  like  truth,  and  may  be  preserved  througli 
every  phase  of  honorable  endeavor. 

It  is  the  nobly  developed  woman  who  ap- 
plies the  beautiful  to  the  useful  and  makes 
of  duty  a  grace.  She  is  capable  of  making- 
industry  a  pleasure,  even  though  it  be  of 
necessity  remunerative  industry.  And  when 
skilful  and  conscientious  industries  come  to 
be  recognized  as  a  part  of  woman's  higher 
education,  her  symmetrical  and  thorough 
training  will  become  a  powerful  agent  to 
advance  the  interests  of  the  civilized  races. 

In  the  past  the  different  classes  of  the 
people  have  voiced  their  demands  for  ad- 
vance or  change  in  varying  tone  and  speech, 
now  reasonable  and  just,  now  unreasonable 
and  intolerant ;  and  the  popular  cry  may 
soon  become,  "  Down  with  idle  men  and 
women  !"  Even  admitting  that  the  material 
interests  of  the  race  do  not  demand  industry, 
the  interests  of  morality  and  physical  well- 
being  do,  for  the  person  of  elegant  leisure  is 
no  longer  happy  when  unoccupied.  A  cer- 
tain well-known  woman,  born  to  a  life  of 
great  luxury,  who  has  never,  perhaps,  made 
her  own  toilet  unaided,  recently  conceived 
the  idea  of  providing  more  comfortable  and 

13 


194 


more  healthy  homes  for  the  mechanics  in 
her  father's  employ ;  and  she  drew  the  plans 
for  the  new  buildings  and  personally  snper- 
intended  their  erection.  She  was  herself  a 
skilled  mechanic,  nsing  a  spokeshave  at  the 
bench  in  preference  to  swinging  dumb-bells 
in  a  gj-mnasinm,  and  explaining  this  prefer- 
ence by  saying  that  in  wielding  tools  in  the 
work  -  shop  she  was  doing  something  for 
others  as  well  as  benefiting  her  own  health 
and  strength.  She  is  personally  attended, 
from  habit,  and  becanse  service  to  her  af- 
fords an  occupation  for  a  hnman  being  for 
whom  it  is  now  too  late  to  provide  another 
mode  of  gaining  a  livelihood. 

The  usefulness  of  linear  drawing  as  a  part 
of  handicraft  is  beyond  computation.  The 
masters  of  this  branch  of  the  delineating  art 
prove  that  a  pencil  brings  the  mind  and  the 
eyes  into  the  closest  intimacy,  and  compels 
the  hand  to  become  an  intelligeut  agent  of 
both.  Bacdn  said,  "  Education  is  the  culti- 
vation of  a  just  and  legitimate  familiarity 
betwixt  thought  and  things."  This  ac- 
quaintance is  first  established  by  creating  a 
picture  of  an  object  in  the  mind,  then  repre- 
senting it  by  a  drawing,  and  lastly  produc- 
ing it  as  a  substantial  fact.  A  German 
writer  avers    that  the  first  and  strongest 


195 


reason  why  woman  is  not  lo<j;i('al  is  bopause 
slie  does  not  create  solid  objects,  while  an 
American  author  denies  her  a  talent  for  bus- 
iness on  the  ground,  as  he  epigrammatically 
expresses  it,  that  she  is  inca[)able  of  seeing 
all  around  a  thing  at  once.  WIhmi  her  hands 
are  trained  to  produce  objects  of  perft'ct  and 
symmetrical  shape,  she  will  have  been  made 
capable  of  seeing  every  side  of  a  thing  from 
the  beginning,  and  in  conse(inence  the  prin- 
cipal one  of  her  alleged  and  doubtless  real 
disabilities  will  have  been  etfaced. 

These  are  two  of  many  reasons  why  the 
hands  of  woman  should  be  trained  to  the  use 
(»f  tools,  and  to  manufacture  solid  articles  of 
utility  and  beauty.  She  has  been  too  long 
restrained  by  silly  pr«'jndice  from  employing 
the  chisel,  saw,  and  hammer,  and  now  that 
these  implements  have  lately  been  placed 
in  her  hands  by  University  authorities,  she 
has  at  once  seized  upon  them  as  liberators 
from  an  enforced  inactivity,  and  from  that 
womanish  helplessness  which,  for  centuries, 
has  received  from  men  both  sneers  of  con- 
tempt and  smiles  of  approval.  She  has  had 
the  reputation  of  being  unable  even  to 
sharpen  a  pencil  properly,  and  many  a  wom- 
an has  had  her  temper  tried  and  her  patience 
exhanste<l  by  waiting  for  days  for  a  man  to 


196 


drive  a  few  mncb-needed  uails.  Certainly 
only  boy  or  man  was  once  entitled  to  wield 
that  distinguishing  instrument,  the  hammer; 
and  yet,  curiously  enough,  the  flimsy  excuses 
for  postponing  its  use,  even  when  the  occa- 
sion was  most  urgent,  hinted  at  the  con- 
cealed willingness  of  men  to  divide  the 
honor  of  handling  tools  with  womankind  so 
soon  as  x^^pwlar  sentiment  should  justify 
such  a  departure.  Such  is  the  tyranny  of 
prejudice. 

It  is  but  a  brief  time  since  three  young 
Swiss  women  came  by  sjiecial  arrangement 
to  this  country  to  make  the  most  delicate 
and  expensive  grade  of  files,  their  accuracy 
and  dexterity,  it  is  said,  being  far  superior 
to  that  of  any  male  file-makers  known  in 
the  craft.  It  is  likely,  of  course,  that  work 
demanding  endurance  and  excess  of  strength 
in  bone  and  sinew  will  always  be  performed 
by  men,  though  we  cannot  tell  what  vigor 
may  in  time  come  to  women,  since  statistics 
have  proved  that  the  frames  of  women  who 
are  well  placed  in  life  are  increasing  in  size, 
especially  in  height,  quite  beyond  those  of 
men.  In  families  where  all  circumstances 
both  of  inheritance  and  surroundings  are 
equal,  nature  does  not  acconnt  for  this  stead- 
ily increasing  disproportion.     In  plants  an 


excess  of  nurture  and  exceptional  opportun- 
ities for  growth  produce  beautiful  but  frail 
leafage  and  blossom,  and  so  impair  the  re- 
productive force  as  to  leave  the  cultivator 
with  uncertain  chances  of  succession ;  and 
this  same  condition  is  to  be  observed  in  the 
growth  of  the  human  species,  for  it  is  by  no 
means  the  overgrown  person  who  is  the 
most  vigorous  and  best  JEitted  to  endure  con- 
tinued strains  with  impunity.  In  explana- 
tion of  the  increasing  difference  of  size  be- 
tween men  and  women,  the  scientist  states 
that  boys  are  set  to  work  while  there  is  still 
time  for  a  wholesome  use  of  their  expanding 
energies,  while  the  Hebes  and  Junes  of  the 
family  are  like  the  over-nurtured  hot-house 
l>lant  that  grows  to  abnormal  heights. 

Fitting  and  systematic  exercise  jirovided 
by  active  industrial  work  is  expected  to 
remedy  this  unpleasant  disproportion  of 
size  between  the  sexes.  It  will  not  only 
lighten  the  burdens  hitherto  borne  by  men, 
but  it  will  beautify  women  and  make  them 
happier,  more  companionable,  and  more  en- 
during. Hand  training  has,  and  will  doubt- 
less long  continue  to  have,  many  opx^onents 
among  women  by  whom  inherited  prejudices 
and  weaknesses  are  cherished  along  with 
their  follies  of  sentimentality.     They  con- 


sider  themselves  beiugs  whom  men  are  only 
to  happy  to  support  iu  idleness,  and  they 
reject  all  hand-craft,  outside  of  sewing  and 
culinary  work,  as  uufeminine  and,  indeed, 
otfensive  to  their  delicate  sensibilities.  Wom- 
en who  have  never  experienced  the  pleasure 
to  be  derived  from  the  use  of  tools  can  have 
no  conceptiou  of  the  fascination  it  affords, 
to  say  nothing  of  its  practical  value.  When 
they  have  once  laid  aside  their  narrow  and 
even  sinful  ideas  regarding  the  delicacy  and 
refinement  of  idleness,  they  will  not  willing- 
ly continue  iu  a  state  of  helpless  inactivity. 
While  it  is  chivalric  iu  man  to  permit 
woman  to  believe  that  to  support  her  in  use- 
lessness  is  the  happiness  of  his  life,  still,  when 
he  makes  the  acquaintance  of  an  active, 
healthy,  wholesome-minded,  intellectual,  and 
practical  woman,  he  seeks  and  enjoys  her 
society  on  every  occasion.  He  thinks  and 
speaks  of  an  evenly-educated  woman — that 
is,  she  whose  hands  obey  a  sensible  head — 
as  "a  comrade,"  "a  sensible  woman;"  and 
there  is  no  likelihood  of  other  than  a  worthy 
friendship  and  a  noble  companionship  sub- 
sisting between  good  men  and  such  women. 
It  is  the  idle  and  imperfectly  educated  wom- 
an who  most  frequently  has  to  regret  the 
trickery  of  unscrupulous  and  selfish  persons, 


199 


and  not  she  who  has  been  made  self-support- 
ing, and  who  is  perfectly  aware  that  she 
holds  the  power  of  self-snstainment  in  her 
finely  furnished  brain,  and  her  hands,  train- 
ed to  skilled  and  definite  work.  Ordinarily 
manual  education  among  the  daugliters  of 
prosperous  parents  does  not  look  to  estab- 
lishing them  in  a  trade,  although  the  con- 
sciousness that  they  have  been  fitted  for  one 
affords  them  a  permanent  feeling  of  security 
against  dependence,  should  poverty  overtake 
them. 

Let  us  keep  in  mind  that  the  education 
of  the  hands,  begun  in  the  kindergarten,  and 
continued  in  practical  ways,  enlarges  and 
quickens  the  mind,  and  is  the  most  satis- 
factory of  mental  and  physical  gymnastics. 
It  is  more  highly  beneficial  to  the  bones 
and  muscles,  by  restraining  any  tendency 
to  overgrowth,  by  producing  stability  of 
structure  and  by  developing  steadiness  of 
nerve,  than  is  fencing,  riding,  or  swimming, 
excellent  as  these  exercises  are.  Of  course, 
these  exercises  and  accomplishments  are  to 
be  desired ;  but  they  are  beyond  many  a 
girl's  reach,  while  manual  training  is  not, 
and  the  dexterity  she  is  able  to  acquire  in 
hand-work  will  be  found  of  service  to  her 
entire  person  if  she  chooses  to  make  it  so. 


If  a  girl  sits  awkwardly,  stands  nugracef Lil- 
ly, or  is  badly  poised  (which  is  always  pro- 
ductive of  ungainly  attitudes),  it  is  her  own 
fault,  and  within  herself  lies  the  remedy.  . 

The  lack  of  manual  dexterity,  in  a  gen- 
eral seuse,  is  the  special  characteristic  of 
savages,  and  the  absence  of  this  skill  in 
woman  will  continue  to  rank  her  as  the  in- 
ferior of  man  when  she  should  be  his  com- 
panion and  friend,  and  his  equal  in  practical 
usefulness.  Is  not  he  who  lays  the  corner- 
stone equal  to  the  person  who  completes  the 
pinnacle?  Though  differing  in  the  variety 
of  their  skill,  the  two  are  equal  in  the  pow- 
er and  value  of  their  dexterity',  judgment, 
and  that  clear  vision  that  has  been  trained 
to  see  the  end  from  the  beginning. 

Through  the  teachings  of  Tolstoi  and 
others  we  are  led  to  consider  that  the  brains 
in  the  hands  should  co-operate  with  those 
in  the  head,  and  we  are  also  brought  to  rec- 
ognize the  fact  that  the  products  of  both 
are  alike  good  and  honorable.  There  is  a 
line,  strong,  and  ever  growing  sentiment  of 
regard  for  labor,  and  a  proportionate  recog- 
nition of  its  real  and  not  its  speculative 
dignity  ;  and  large-minded  men  and  women 
have  concluded  that  nothing  that  is  worth 
doing  can  justly  be  considered  beneath  ac- 


complislimeut  by  auy  <;rade  of  persons ;  ex- 
pediency and  fitness — not  birth  or  fortune 
— determining  the  choice  of  pursuits.  To 
be  sure,  this  idea  may  be  carried  so  far  as 
to  become  Utopian,  as  in  some  of  the  practi- 
cal examples  furnished  by  Tolstoi,  and  even 
by  Morris,  and  their  followers.  However,  it 
is  by  the  light  of  glaring  excesses  that  judi- 
cious persons  see  how  to  choose  a  safe  mid- 
dle way  to  worthy  and  valuable  results. 

Since  Lawrence  Oliphant  has  proven  to 
the  satisfaction  of  many  conservative  minds 
that  there  is  spirit  in  matter,  and  scientists 
inform  us  that  there  is  mind  and  definite  in- 
tention in  vegetation,  there  can  be  less  to 
justify  the  drawing  of  a  line  of  distinction 
between  hands  that  ought  and  hands  that 
ought  not  to  perform  manual  work.  This 
expressed  belief  by  respected  authorities 
in  united  mind  and  matter,  will  go  far 
towards  smoothing  the  way  for  women  to 
serve  themselves  and  others,  in  a  wider 
range  of  usefulness  in  family  life.  Man- 
ual labor  finely  or  even  acceptably  exe- 
cuted—  "art  in  craft,"  as  it  is  now  called 
when  work  is  thoroughly  well  done  —  re- 
moves from  women  the  formerly  prevalent 
objection  to  her  doing  what  was  once  called 
menial  work. 


202 


As  you  know,  it  was  Froebcl,  the  niuster- 
mind  iu  kindergarten  work  for  children, 
wlio  p(nceive<l  in  manual  work — first,  a  pro- 
tection for  children  from  the  evil,  and  some- 
times fatal,  etfccts  of  idleness;  and  second, 
an  aid  to  brain  work  iu  the  training  of  the 
eyes  to  see  more  clearly,  the  ears  to  hear 
more  acutely,  aud  the  hands  to  do  accurate 
work.  The  observing  faculties  and  their 
practical  uses  to  the  scholar,  whether  classi- 
cal or  scientific,  were  then  tested,  and  the 
result  both  astonished  and  delighted  him. 
He  saw,  though  his  countrymen  perceived  it 
not,  that  his  discovery  was  the  much  need- 
ed element  iu  human  development,  both 
mental  aud  physical.  He  insisted  that  hand- 
training  was  boundless  in  its  practical  use- 
fulness, establishing  in  the  student  the  pow- 
er to  calculate  results.  He  saw  that  the 
habit  of  patient  industry,  aud  of  conscien- 
tiously completing  every  task  begun,  aud  an 
enlarged  capacity  for  self -helpfulness  aud 
for  helping  others  must  remove  from  youth 
many  of  its  strongest  temptations. 

Most  children  are  happy  in  creating  or 
repairing  domestic  implements,  and  iu  add- 
ing to  the  general  convenience  of  the  family. 
Here  the  results  of  their  manual  skill  are 
apparent  from  the  very  beginning,  whether 


the  implement  used  be  a  needle  or  a  saw. 
With  scissors  and  paper,  guided  by  a  pur- 
pose definitely  pictured  in  the  brain,  and 
perhaps  transferred  to  paper  by  a  pencil, 
garment  drafting  and  cutting  is  practised, 
and  it  has  grown  to  be  one  of  the  accom- 
plishments of  the  domestic  woman.  The 
most  valuable  of  family  service  has  been 
the  result  of  elementary  work  done  during 
kindergarten  hand-training,  not  to  mention 
as  an  additional  consequence  a  higher  moral 
development  and  a  firmer  and  larger  self- 
respect  in  households  that  once  had  few  an- 
ticipations of  anything  better  for  themselves 
than  bread— just  bread  for  to-day.  They 
had  no  to-morrow,  and  most  of  their  yester- 
days they  were  glad  to  forget,  and  did, 
whenever  the  wretchedness  of  those  yester- 
days would  let  them.  Even  now,  many  a 
mother  fancies  that  her  child  in  the  kinder- 
garten is  only  being  diverted  and  safely 
cared  for,  and  she  is  duly  thankful  for  this. 
But  because  the  little  one  is  given  no  books 
to  study,  and  is  required  to  commit  nothing 
to  memory,  as  a  lesson  to  be  recited,  she  can- 
not understand  that  its  mind  is  being  un- 
folded, enriched,  and  inspired  with  an  im- 
pulse of  perpetual  inquiry,  that,  like  the 
pick  in  the  hands  of  the  miner,  shall  lay 


204 


bare  many  a  treasure  of  knowledge,  and 
bring  wisdom  and  fortune  iu  the  days  to 
come. 

Tills  permanent  effect  of  kindergarten 
training  is  but  one  of  several  results  of  an 
apparently  insignificant  beginning  that,  with 
other  inspirations,  has  made  the  minds  of 
earnest  women  alert  and  eager  to  do  practi- 
cal work  with  their  own  hands.  They  al- 
ready feel  the  influence  of  manual  training 
upon  their  sympathies.  They  understand 
more  and  more  clearly  the  hardships  and 
difficulties  of  those  whom  they  employ;  for 
they  are  learning,  through  a  practical  sys- 
tem of  doing  what  others  do,  to  realize  the 
disabilities,  as  well  as  to  experience  the 
pleasures  there  are  in  the  differing  conditions 
of  the  human  family,  the  result  being  that 
they  are  more  willing  to  aid  than  to  blame, 
more  ready  to  appreciate  an  endeavor  than 
to  condemn  a  failure. 

Hand-training,  as  taught  at  Niiiis,  Sweden, 
includes  only  instruction  in  the  use  of  the 
knife,  which  is  held  in  either  hand,  accord- 
ing to  convenience  and  the  requirements 
of  the  article  made.  It  is  amazing  to  learn 
the  wondrous  possibilities  of  this  simple 
implement,  for  its  use  not  only  gives  the 
worker  great  manual  dexterity,  but  also  dis- 


205 


cipliues  her  muscles  aud  eularges  her  iinder- 
stauding. 

At  this  school  more  than  a  thousand  per- 
sons, representing  many  different  social 
grades  and  many  nationalities,  have  been 
instructed,  that  they  might  become  teach- 
ers, either  as  benefactors  of  their  fellows  or 
to  gain  a  livelihood.  Instruction  and  lodg- 
ing are  free,  each  learner  being  obliged  to  paj'" 
only  one  Tcroner  (about  twenty -five  cents) 
per  day  for  her  meals.  The  meals,  of  course, 
are  never  sumptuous,  but  they  are  abun- 
dant, wholesome,  aud  cleanly.  One  hundred 
wood  models  are  provided  for  the  students, 
all  representing  articles  of  utility  in  the 
home  or  upon  the  farm. 

The  basis  of  the  industrial  and  creative 
principle  acquired  by  wielding  the  knife,  as 
well  as  its  artistic  practical  results,  are  in 
reality  an  application  of  the  laws  of  geome- 
try. It  goes  without  saying  that  this  branch 
of  instruction  is  one  that  women,  as  a  sex, 
have  always  disliked.  It  has  generally  been 
urged  that  a  practical  use  of  this  depart- 
ment of  mathematics  wouhl  always  remain 
quite  outside  the  demands  of  an  ordinary 
woman's  life  ;  but  this  has  proved  a  mistake. 
What  girls  have  heretofore  learned  of  geom- 
etry at  school  was  more  or  less  compulsory, 


and  studied  with  mental  reservations,  if  not 
with  ontspoken  protests.  Manual  work, 
however,  with  its  foundation  of  geometry, 
has  proved  an  agreeable  revelation  to  this 
class  of  women,  who  j)erceive  the  meaning 
of  the  science  now  that  it  is  unveiled  to 
them.  I  remember,  when  a  child,  once  in- 
quiring of  a  master  in  mathematics  why, 
when  adding  figures,  one  should  carry  all 
the  tens  to  the  next  column,  and  the  laconic 
reply  Avas,  "  Becanse  it  is  the  rule."  In 
this  way  girls  have  been  instructed  in  ge- 
ometry hy  rule,  and  the  ordinary  feminine 
mind  took  no  interest  in  the  study  and  could 
perceive  no  reason  for  its  being. 

From  Moscow  we  obtain  a  second  and 
more  advanced  practical  system  of  manual 
training,  this  system  being  now  used  by 
technical  and  scientific  teachers  in  the  best 
schools  in  America.  This  fact  should  be  a 
little  humiliating  to  a  people  who,  more  than 
any  other,  ]n,Y  claim  to  a  national  habit  of 
whittling.  For  notwitlistanding  the  good- 
natured  ridicule  that  has  been  heaped  upon 
this  American  habit,  the  fact  remains  that 
many  of  our  most  important  inventions  date 
from  an  expression  in  wood  of  a  man's 
thought.  But  although  an  endless  variety 
of  conveniences   and   labor-saving  imple- 


207 


nients,  not  to  mention  contrivances  that 
have  enriched  the  workl,  have  owed  their 
origin  to  practical  skill  with  the  jack-knife, 
this  useful  tool  has  only  lately  been  placed 
in  the  hands  of  women.  ludeed,  it  was  con- 
sidered as  inappropriate  as  a  thimble  and 
needle  would  be  in  the  grasp  of  a  boy.  It 
was  to  this  sharp  division  of  implements  be- 
tween the  sexes  that  the  tailor  owed  an  un- 
deserved but  universal  contempt.  Only 
lately  a  respected  New  England  governor 
announced,  in  protesting  against  a  narrow- 
ing under-estimate  of  certain  kinds  of  use- 
fulness, that  he  highly  prized  the  practical 
knowledge  of  the  needle  which  he  had  ac- 
quired when  a  child.  He  said  that  on  many 
occasions  his  sewing  had  been  of  the  greatest 
use  to  him,  and  hundreds  of  travellers  could 
tell  a  similar  tale  had  they  been  so  fortunate 
as  to  have  had  a  wise  mother.  Ruskin  calls 
attention  to  the  fact  that  every  one  of  the 
great  Italian  painters  and  sculptors  was  ap- 
prenticed to  workers  in  fine  metals,  and  that 
it  was  while  making  symmetrical  objects 
that  their  fingers  were  disciplined  and  their 
hands  made  trustworthy  aids  to  their  brains, 
in  the  production  of  those  beautiful  master- 
pieces which  have  won  immortal  fame. 
According  to  the  Swedish  system  of  hand 


208 


culture  at  home,  there  are  eight  steps  or 
class  grades,  aud  each  of  them  iuvolves  the 
makiug  of  two  articles,  which  must  he  per- 
fected hefore  others  are  attempted.  lu  this 
Avay  much  moral  trainiug  is  gaiued  ;  for  the 
worker,  be  she  woman  or  child,  is  sure  to 
lose  a  part  of  her  force  of  character  when- 
ever she  permits  herself  to  leave  one  task 
uucomxileted  for  the  sake  of  attempting  some 
more  attractive  work.  Not  only  are  the 
material  and  time  lost  that  she  has  devoted 
to  the  unfinished  article,  hut  her  habit  of 
persistency  is  weakened  and  her  power  to 
compel  herself  diminished.  Perseverance  is 
claimed  to  be  a  masculine  rather  than,  a 
feminine  trait,  although  the  assertion  has 
not  been  satisfactorily  proven.  If  it  be  true 
in  isolated  cases,  there  is  an  excuse  for  the 
woman,  and  perhaps  a  justification  ;  for  has 
she  not  a  hundred  details  in  her  every-day 
duties  to  others  that  demand  the  use  of  her 
hands  and  her  sympathies?  She  has  also 
many  minor  but  essential  industries  that 
consume  her  time,  as  well  as  cares  that  ex- 
haust her  strength  to  such  a  degree  that  she 
is  unable  to  systematize  her  work  or  choose 
her  own  hours  for  those  useful  and  beautiful 
arts  which,  by-the-bye,  if  added  to  the  crafts, 
bear  profit  as  well  as  culture  in  their  train. 


The  tools  ordinarily  used  by  cabinet- 
makers are  ignored  by  most  persons  who  are 
seeking  merely  to  acquire  manual  dexterity 
and  have  no  intention  of  using  their  skill  as 
a  means  of  livelihood ;  but  it  has  been 
proved  that  hands  which  are  capable  of 
turning  out  well-finished  work  with  a  knife 
will  find  all  the  less  difficulty  in  mastering 
the  use  of  every  sort  of  carpenter's  tools.  As 
a  rule,  a  teacher  must  have  made  every 
model  that  is  oifered  the  pupils  to  copy,  and 
this  instructor  is  usually  a  woman.  This 
plan  at  once  establishes  confidence  in  the 
mind  of  the  feminine  beginner,  for  she  imme- 
diately quotes,  for  her  own  encouragement, 
"  What  woman  has  done,  woman  may  do." 
The  woods  in  general  use  are  chieliy  red  and 
white  pine,  though  for  children's  hands  bass- 
wood  and  cedar  are  preferred,  because  they 
are  softer  and  do  not  require  as  much 
strength  to  work  them  properly. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  in  classes  of 
students  in  hand-training  the  more  thor- 
oughly disciplined  minds  have  an  advantage 
over  less  cultured  ones,  and  in  the  same  pro- 
portion persons  with  trained  hands  ac^quire 
book-learning  more  easily  and  remember 
more  clearly  than  those  whose  hands  are 
untrained    in   mechanical  ways.      This  has 

li 


been  said  before,  but  it  cannot  be  too 
strongly  empbasized  while  tbere  remains  an 
inequality  or  disproportion  between  brain 
and  manual  culture.  But  the  learner  must 
not  mistake  information  upon  all  sorts  of 
subjects  for  cultivation  or  mental  discipline. 
A  knowledge  that  is  confined  to  unapplied 
rules  and  abstract  ideas  and  theories  is  not 
education  in  its  best  sense.  The  task  may 
appear  too  easy  to  the  inexperienced,  but 
the  thoroughly  trained  declare  that  there  is 
true  wisdom  in  making  the  first  formal  les- 
son in  handicraft,  the  shaping  of  a  pointer 
or  flower-stick,  or  perhaps  a  pen-holder,  or 
some  similar  article  of  simple  outline.  The 
average  person  believes  herself  instinctively 
capable  of  so  much  industrial  art,  but  let 
her  try  to  make  a  perfect  specimen  of  one  of 
these  articles,  and  she  will  then  understand 
why  the  simplest  object  is  selected  for  the 
rudimentary  student.  Whatever  model  is 
chosen  must  be  followed  with  exactness, 
this  rule  being  arbitrary  after  selection. 
One  or  a  score  of  the  same  article  may  be 
made,  but  perfection  must  be  attained  be- 
fore a  second  model  is  allowed  the  carver. 

The  next  olyect  presented  to  the  learner 
is  a  letter-opener,  or  leaf-cutter,  or  a  netting- 
needle.     The  third  selection  is  a  rolling-pin, 


a  towel-roller,  or  perhaps  a  round  ruler,  and 
a  hoop-stick  or  clothos-pog.  After  these  are 
completed,  handles  for  bread  -  knives  are 
carved  and  their  ornamentation  reproduced 
from  drawings  that  are  either  original  or 
copied.  Then  come  picture-frames,  more  or 
less  elaborate,  bread  -  boards  for  the  table, 
with  an  ornamental  edge  that  matches  the 
knife,  nlso  salad  forks  and  spoons,  and  boxes 
-with  dovetailed  corners.  The  picture-frames 
and  boxes  are  the  tirst  objects  that  require 
the  use  of  the  cabinet-maker's  square  aud 
rule.  These  implements  are  used  as  a  test, 
however,  and  lessen  in  no  degree  the  disci- 
pline which  the  eyes  are  receiving,  the  rule 
being  introduced  to  verify  rather  than  guide 
the  vision,  which  has  become  almost  accu- 
rate. As  there  must  be  no  uncertainty  or 
inaccuracy  in  work  of  this  kind,  the  measure 
is  carefully  applied.  The  process  of  produc- 
ing perfect  proportions  trains  the  mental 
faculties  as  well  as  the  hands  and  muscles, 
and,  indeed,  the  entire  body.  We  may  be 
sure  that  the  woman  who  can  make  a  box, 
dovetail  its  corners,  add  its  hinges,  fit  its 
back,  and  perhaps  cover  and  line  it  with 
silk,  will  be  able  thereafter,  with  more  dex- 
terity and  speed,  to  cut  out  a  gown,  adjust 
it  perfectly,  hang  it  gracefully,  and  complete 


212 


it   neatly — yes,  aud  wear    it  witli  greater 
dignity  and  elegance. 

Of  course,  women  as  well  as  children  stand 
at  a  table  or  bench  while  they  are  working 
at  home  with  a  knife.  The  boards  for 
boxes  are  procured  somewhat  smoothed,  and 
sawed  into  proper  but  not  exact  sizes.  In 
the  college  of  carpentry  for  University  wom- 
en at  Oxford,  the  beginning  of  wood-work- 
ing is  also  done  with  a  knife,  and  the  same 
simple  articles  as  in  Sweden  are  perfectly 
completed  before  an  advance  step  is  made. 
After  that,  the  bench,  with  the  hammer,  saw, 
plane,  lathe,  spokeshave,  brace  and  bit, 
screw-driver,  nails,  gimlet,  chisel,  etc.,  etc., 
becomes  the  scene  of  the  student's  labors, 
but  the  strictest  discipline  as  to  progress  aud 
perception  in  regard  to  every  object  under- 
taken is  carefully  maintained.  All  imper- 
fect work  is  remade  or  destroyed,  since  it 
would  be  an  offence  to  keep  it,  and  a  great- 
er one  to  give  it  away.  Women  who  last 
year  made  carved  frames  for  Christmas  gifts 
will  this  year  give  carved  chairs,  brackets, 
sideboard  tops,  mantels,  consoles,  picture 
mouldings  for  a  parlor,  panels,  to  take  the 
place  of  hangings,  the  backs  of  upright 
pianos,  to  be  turned  towards  the  middle  of 
the  room. 


213 


Tlio  principles  of  tlu«  Imnd-work,  as  tanght 
in  Sweden,  maintain  that  all  articles  made 
must  be  ii.seful.  Hut  wiieu  one's  eyes  have 
hccomo  accust<»m«'«l  («>  heantifnl  objects,  tbc 
bcautit'nl  lias  become  useful,  in  that  it  min- 
isters to  onr  higher  senses,  and  stands  in 
relation  to  our  perceptions  souu'what  as 
perfectly  prepared  food  does  to  a  n'fined  ap- 
petite. It  is  not  gluttony  to  require  Avell- 
cooked  viands,  uor  is  it  worldliness  to  be 
discontented  with  ugliness  of  outline,  or 
bad  proportions,  in  one's  furnishings.  When 
tlie  defects  are  unavoi<lable,  the  philosophic 
mind  accepts  them,  but  it  should  uever  be 
satisfied  with  them.  To  the  many  reasons 
—  mental,  moral,  physical,  and  material  — 
adduced  in  favor  of  hand-training  and  mau- 
ual  dexterity,  uiay  be  added  the  homely  fact 
that  the  wear  and  tear  on  feminine  temper 
and  i)atience  involved  iu  th{;  waiting  for 
work  to  l)e  done  will  be  spared  to  women, 
and  they  will,  by  virtue  of  their  self-reliance 
and  all-accomi)lishing  energy,  bring  good 
cheer  iuto  the  household  for  husband  aud 
children.  It  may  certainly  bo  takeu  for 
granted  that  the  physical  gain  resulting 
from  active  mechanical  work  will  <liminish 
invalidism,  and  abrogate  laziness. 

An  eminent  anthority  on  such  subjects,  a 


man  of  -vvido  experience,  close  observation, 
and  generous  conclusions,  declares  that 
women,  as  a  rule,  waste  more  nerve  force 
and  vitality  in  struggles  with  their  lot  and 
in  passionate  despair  over  really  surmount- 
able difficulties  than  they  would  expend  in 
an  ordinary  life  of  actual  labor  in  such 
mechanical  work  as  comes  within  the  range 
of  their  strength  and  tastes.  He  adds  that 
a  higher  education,  wholly  acquired  by 
study,  if  it  does  not  entirely  destroy  a 
woman's  potential  motherhood,  at  least  di- 
miuishes  her  chances  of  safety  and  of  a 
healthy  posterity.  He  insists,  also,  that 
the  woman  with  dexterous  hands,  besides 
having  a  more  enduring  body  and  a  better 
equipped  intellect,  is  not  troubled  before 
marriage  with  anxieties  regarding  her  fut- 
ure, since  she  knows  that  she  is  able  to 
support  herself. 

The  present  method  ( beginning  in  the 
kindergarten,  and  doubtless  the  fruit  of  the 
Froebelian  idea)  of  educating  hands  and 
brains,  by,  through,  and  for  each  other,  is  a 
happy  change  for  girls ;  and  those  wom- 
en who  desire  a  college  education  need  no 
longer  be  deterred  by  fears  of  a  broken  con- 
stitution, and  a  morbid  future.  Whether 
trades  should  be  taught  in  schools  may  be 


21.'5 


:i  (iuesti(»ii,  Ijiit  that  tbo  use  of  the  body  is 
an  important  cltMiient  in  edncation  cannot 
bo  (lonbtod.  Alivady  it  is  proved  that  tho 
•general  dexterity  which  tho  kindergarten 
methods  develop  in  ehiklren  opens  their 
understanding  to  tho  arts,  sciences,  and 
various  branches  of  phih)sophy,  and  gives 
them  an  interest  in  practical  things  and  a 
cnmuraderie  with  all  craftsmen.  By  this 
kindergarten  impulse,  also,  they  are  provid- 
ed with  occupation  at  home,  a  lack  of  which 
has  distracted  many  a  mother,  and  mined 
many  a  child.  From  tho  small  maker  of 
doll's  clothes  to  tho  artistic  costnmer,  or  tho 
accomplished  needle-woman,  there  is  an  in- 
evitable evolution,  provided— and  this  is  of 
vittd  importauce  —  that  the  mother  insists 
upon  care  and  skill  in  the  shaping,  and  per- 
severance in  the  completion  of  every  garment 
her  little  daughter  nndertakes  to  make. 
The  girl  should  never  be  row\arded  for  good 
work,  for  the  ability  to  bring  her  undertak- 
ing to  a  satisfactory  conclusion  will  be  quite 
reward  enough.  A  reward  is  really  a  bribe 
under  another  name,  and  a  child  should  be 
taught  to  scorn  a  reward  for  well-doing,  as 
a  dishonorable  gain.  The  kindergarten 
teaches,  both  by  precept  and  example,  that 
neither  a  girl  nor  a  boy  should  be  paid  for 


216 


doing  anything  well.  By  implication,  it 
suggests  and  maintains  the  difference  be- 
tween wages  and  rewards — one  being  a  just 
recompense,  while  the  otlier  is  an  offered  in- 
dignity. The  sound  basis  of  morals  which 
the  kindergarten  constantly  and  silently 
builds  on  grows  broader  and  firmer  as  the 
child  develops  through  youth  to  maturity. 
That  self-respect  which  a  woman  feels  when 
she  knows  herself  capable  of  meeting  all  the 
emergencies  of  her  station,  has  been,  in  a 
proportionate  degree,  experienced  by  the 
girl  of  tender  years,  as,  little  by  little,  her 
brain  was  stored  with  useful  knowledge  in 
orderly  arrangement,  and  her  hands  made 
skilful  in  arts  and  crafts  as  interesting  as 
play,  and  yet  as  dignified  as  are  the  pursuits 
of  the  full-grown  man. 


THE   END. 


B     000  010  083     4 


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